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Summary
After the publication of an article by US journalist Seymour Hersh highlighting that the US remotely detonated the explosives that blew the Nord Stream pipelines under president Biden’s orders, the US try to downplay the situation and defend their stance that Russian special services are involved in the sabotage, while not allowing Russia to take part in the investigation. The US Administration try to silence the situation.
Disproof
This is part of a wider pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign aiming to amplify and exploit Seymour Hersh’s controversial article accusing the US of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines. The article can’t be considered an evidence of this: it is based on a single, unidentified anonymous source and published in Hersh’s personal blog, so no editorial team was involved in its preparation.
Some of its affirmations have been credibly debunked by journalists, experts and OSINT researchers, such as claims about NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg cooperating with the US since the Vietnam War (who was 15 at the time this war ended), the use of the M350 Alta ship (which had been out of use since 2012 and sent to the scrapyard in 2022), or that a P-8 aircraft of the Norwegian Navy was involved to detonate the explosives (none of Norway’s P-8 was remotely closer to the area of the explosions).
Other allegations have been reported as highly implausible, such as the presence of this single source in all the preparatory meetings for the operation; that selected members of the US Congress and other government agencies weren’t informed out of need for maximum secrecy, but then Norway was enrolled and Sweden and Denmark would have been informed at some point; or that this top-secret operation was carried out during the BALTOPS military exercises, attended and closely watched by multiple NATO countries.
The White House dismissed Hersh’s report as ‘utterly false and complete fiction(opens in a new tab).’ Similarly, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called(opens in a new tab) the allegations ‘nonsense.’ However, pro-Kremlin outlets and Russian authorities have massively reported and commented on it as if this allegation had been proven.
Apart from the great attention from Kremlin key propaganda outlets, it has been the main point used by Russian Minister Lavrov to demand the UNSC address the issue with an international investigation.
Talking about unsubstantiated allegations as if they were established facts while introducing minor variations, as in this case, is a frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation technique.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Joe Biden wanted to freeze Germany by destroying the Nord Stream, that American officials admit that the explosions at NS1 and NS2 were their work, that Western sabotage of Nord Stream pipelines caused an environmental disaster, or that sabotaging Nord Stream was the stupidest US action in years.