Who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 15 February 2023
⏱️ 25 minutes
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Summary
When the Nord Stream pipelines - that pump gas from Russia to Germany - were damaged in September it didn’t take long for investigators to determine they had been sabotaged. Almost six months on, and despite three different investigations, are we any closer to knowing who carried out the attack and why?
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Guest: Marc Bennetts, Foreign Correspondent, The Times.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It was in the early hours of the morning, on 26 September last year. It began with a rumble |
| 0:13.0 | down in the murky depths of the Baltic Sea. Something had clearly gone wrong, as giant |
| 0:20.3 | bubbles burst up to the surface of the sea and rippled out beyond. |
| 0:25.6 | About 70 meters below sea level, gas is escaping from the Nord Stream pipelines. |
| 0:31.6 | Like a boiling cauldron, the busy Baltic Sea bursting with gas from ruptured Russian |
| 0:37.7 | Nord Stream reinforced pipelines. |
| 0:41.3 | At three minutes past two, seismologists in nearby Denmark and Sweden noticed tremors |
| 0:48.7 | out at sea. Within moments, the Nord Stream pipelines, which deliver gas from Russia to |
| 0:55.2 | Germany, had sprung four separate leaks. And when investigators went down to the seabed |
| 1:03.7 | and found traces of explosives, it was clear that this was no accident. |
| 1:11.4 | NATO this morning calling those mysterious leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines sabotage. |
| 1:19.6 | What unfolded reads like an international Agatha Christie who done it, with a string of suspects, |
| 1:26.6 | plenty of red herrings and accusations flying across the world. |
| 1:32.6 | So who had the motive, the means and the opportunity to carry out such an audacious act of sabotage? |
| 1:42.1 | You're listening to stories of our times from the times and the Sunday times. I'm Manvine |
| 1:47.6 | Rana. Today, who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline? |
| 1:54.6 | My name is Mark Bennett. I'm a foreign correspondent for the Times. I was based in Russia until last |
| 2:05.5 | year. And now I'm covering Russia and Ukraine. |
| 2:09.4 | Mark, this particular story starts in September, deep in the Baltic Sea. What actually happened? |
| 2:17.6 | Well, yeah, the crime scene, as it were, lies at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in the very |
| 2:22.4 | chilly waters off the Danish island of Borneholm, which is quite close to Sweden's southern coastline. |
| 2:28.5 | And powerful explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 underwater gas pipelines |
... |
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