World News

Nord Stream blasts: how the Kremlin has muddied the waters

Posted by: The Conversation

Date: Friday, 23 August 2024

It’s been almost two years since saboteurs attacked the Nord Stream gas pipelines connecting Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. And despite the best efforts of geopolitical gumshoes, the world over, there has yet to be a definitive answer to who carried out the attack, on whose orders and why.

News that German prosecutors this month issued a warrant for the arrest of a Ukrainian diving instructor residing in Poland has seemingly satisfied no one: Ukraine this week dismissed any sniff of complicity as “nonsense,” as did Poland. Russia, for its part, accused German investigators of looking to close the case while trying to conceal the “real culprits.”

To borrow from an old legal phrase, “well they would, wouldn’t they.” You see, as Keith Brown of Arizona State University explains, it is in Moscow’s interests to keep the case open and push the line that Kyiv and Washington were behind the infrastructure attack,

“Russia’s narrative on Nord Stream may well, when all the investigations are said and done, be the dominant one. But what is clear is that Putin’s accusations against Ukraine and the United States are motivated not by commitment to justice, but by a drive to disrupt and distract,” Brown writes.

Elsewhere this week, we have been following goings-on at the Democratic National Convention and climate change’s “overshoot myth.”

Matt Williams

Senior International Editor

A warrant is out for a diver – but Vladimir Putin can breathe easy, it isn’t for him. Alexey Druzhinin/RIA NOVOSTI/AFP via Getty Images)

Treating Nord Stream blasts as a whodunit misses the point – and plays into Russia’s plan to distract and divide

Keith Brown, Arizona State University

Since saboteurs blew up the Russia-Germany gas pipelines in September 2022, theories have swirled about who was responsible. German prosecutors recently issued a warrant for a Ukrainian.

Soldiers from the DRC-Uganda joint military operation against the rebel Allied Democratic Forces in 2021. Alain Uaykani/Xinhua via Getty Images

Uganda and the DRC conflict: the interests driving Kampala’s involvement

Kristof Titeca, University of Antwerp

Uganda’s interest in natural resources during the second Congo war has had a lasting impact on how it’s perceived in the DRC.

Melting Antarctic glacier. Shutterstock/Bernhard Staehli

The overshoot myth: you can’t keep burning fossil fuels and expect scientists of the future to get us back to 1.5°C

James Dyke, University of Exeter; Robert Watson, University of East Anglia; Wolfgang Knorr, Lund University

The net zero approach of the Paris agreement has become detached from reality as it increasingly relies on science fiction levels of speculative technology.

Kenya’s anti-finance bill protests have been spearheaded by Gen Zers. Gerald Anderson/Anadolu via Getty Images

How debt and taxes conspired to rob Nairobi’s slum-dwelling youth of the promise of a better life

Angela R. Pashayan, American University

A 2010 constitution offered Kenyans economic and social rights that have faded in the face of mounting national debt.

 
 
 
 

ERi-TV, Eritrea - ኣዴታት፡ ሰብ ሓዳርን፡ ኣደ ቆልዑን ተሳተፍቲ ሳዋ - Mothers who are participating at Eritrean National Service training center in Sawa

Dehai Events