In a very unexpected development Denmark is now working directly with Russia’s Gazprom to do environmental mitigation on the damaged Nord Stream pipelines, in the wake of the multiple underwater blasts that took them offline on September 26, 2022 – leading to years of accusations against Moscow and a Russia-West tit-for-tat.
Denmark’s energy agency has granted Nord Stream 2 AG (which is under Gazprom) permission to engage in preservation work on Nord Stream 2 in the Baltic Sea. The agency described that there remain serious safety risks after the natural gas pipeline was filled with seawater and the remnants of natural gas.
“The work aims to preserve the damaged pipeline by installing customized plugs at each of the open pipe ends to prevent further gas blow-out and the introduction of oxygenated seawater,” Denmark’s energy agency said.
The $11 billion pipeline project to pump Russian gas to Germany was hugely contentious for years, with Washington opposing it, before it was blown up in a ‘mysterious’ sabotage operation.
The Western mainstream media has since backed off its repeat accusations that Moscow must have blown up its own vital pipeline, in light of revelations and a recent consensus that it was either a team of Ukrainian specialists on a ‘rogue’ yacht or else a major CIA op with help from the US Navy.
While Scandinavian countries were once leading the accusations and investigations against Moscow related to the sabotage, suddenly Denmark appears to be working with ‘pariah’ Russia. All of this is happening as Washington still has far-reaching sanctions on Russia as well as the NS2 Russian operator, Gazprom’s Nord Stream 2 AG.
“The damaged line of NS2 is estimated to still contain approximately 9-10 million cubic meters of natural gas, while the intact line remains filled with gas, the Danish agency said,” Reuters notes. “The United States in December issued further sanctions on the operator and other Russian entities saying it considers Nord Stream 2 a Russian geopolitical project and opposes efforts to revive it,” the report adds.
This has raised the crucial question of whether the Russian entity’s supposed environmental mitigation efforts are but cover to eventually revive the controversial project.
This brings up other questions of context and timing. After all, the Danish government is currently locked in a very public battle and war of words with the new Trump administration over Greenland’s sovereignty. Is the tiny NATO country of Denmark in search of any and all possible leverage?
From close US ally to lashing out…
“When the CIA wanted to tap Angela Merkel’s phones, Denmark was there.
When Biden decided to blow up the Nord Stream, in whose waters did he do it? Denmark’s.” https://t.co/zGwvCGRNXy
— Американец 📉 (@ripplebrain) January 7, 2025
And given the Ukraine war increasingly seems unwinnable from the Western perspective, is it time for a European reset vis-a-vis Russia and its heavily relied upon natural gas?
The following hit Politico on Tuesday:
France has discussed with Denmark sending troops to Greenland in response to United States President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to annex the Danish territory, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said.
Asked about calls to send EU troops to Greenland, Barrot said in an interview with France’s Sud Radio that France had “started discussing [troop deployment] with Denmark,” but that it was not “Denmark’s wish” to proceed with the idea.
Barrot’s comments came as Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was in the middle of a lightning tour of European capitals to drum up support from allies in dealing with Trump.
Essentially, at the very moment Denmark is trying to “drum up support” within Europe to stand up to Trump, the Danish government goes from condemning Russia’s sanctioned Gazprom to working with it and authorizing it to do work on NS2.
But likely there will be a shrug from the White House, given the current broader context is Trump is trying to get Moscow to the negotiating table in hopes of quickly winding down the Ukraine war.
Europe has gone from relying entirely on cheap Russian gas to relying entirely on expensive US LNG pic.twitter.com/C4UiUH1W81
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 1, 2025
But the Trump administration also has some clear interests of its own related to the ongoing NS2 saga and whodunnit ‘mystery’, as the above demonstrates.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 01/28/2025 – 23:00
