LONDON: As Ian Fleming, the British author who created James Bond, wrote: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.”
One does not need to be an avid reader of Cold War novels to see echoes of the adventures of 007 in the real-life events around the Nord Stream gas twin pipelines this week. In a single day, the conduits, which link Russia with Germany under the Baltic Sea, have suffered not one, not two, but three separate major leaks. The word sabotage springs to mind.
Like Fleming’s fictional spook, real Western spies in the Soviet Union operated under a set of principles known as “Moscow Rules” to stay alive under constant harassment from the Kremlin and the KGB. A key one was that “if it feels wrong, it is wrong.” Three leaks in one day feels very, very wrong.
A NEW FRONT ON RUSSIA’S ENERGY WAR AGAINST EUROPE
Put aside the fact that neither the Nord Stream 1 nor the Nord Stream 2 pipelines is operational right now. The leaks are more likely a message: Russia is opening a new front on its energy war against Europe.
First, it weaponised gas supply, halting shipments, including via the Nord Stream pipeline. Now, it may be attacking the energy infrastructure it once used to ship its energy.
The first step in the militarisation of power supplies could have been easily reversed; it just needs a political decision to re-start the flow of gas.
The second stage, though, is longer-term and, perhaps, even permanent. If anyone in Europe was expecting Germany would get any gas via the Nord Stream pipelines in 2023, this apparent attack ends those hopes.
“The destruction that happened within one day at three lines of the Nord Stream pipeline system is unprecedented,” the operator of the pipeline said Tuesday (Sep 27) in a statement. “It’s impossible now to estimate the timeframe for restoring operations.”
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