Nord Stream: Tie-ins and hyperbaric welding
Everyone seems to know it was Russia and is just casting out ideas to find a plausible motivation. I find that completely baffling.<p>For opportunity, consider that while setting up the pipeline needs a weird high-pressure residence and special training, blowing it up takes a fishing boat, scuba gear and underwater explosives. The equipment and training is cheap and available. So, those with opportunity is almost anyone. Practically, anyone with access to the Baltic Sea, boats, scuba equipment, underwater explosives; it doesn&#x27;t have even to be anyone with military training, just skills in underwater demolition.<p>For motivation, consider who benefits from <i>permanently</i> reducing European dependence on Russian energy?<p>Resist going for &quot;Clearly, Russia!&quot;.  Just spitballing here, but why not a German opposition group? Norway? Poland? Any activist group opposed to EU dependence on Russia? Shit, why not Danish anarchists, for that matter?<p>It <i>could</i> be Russia who suddenly decided for some reason that sanctions will never end and <i>blowing up the means of selling hundreds of billions of euros of energy to Europe</i> is a better use of the pipeline. But before getting there, you have to explain why it wasn&#x27;t any of the myriad other groups who did <i>not have hundreds of billions of Euros</i> riding on it.