Antifake of the Day: The Times’ latest article containing unreliable information

On February 2, the British daily The Times published an item titled Who attacked the Nord Stream pipelines?

Marc Bennetts, who is known for his contributions to propaganda, decided to try on the role of energy expert deliberating, based on unsubstantiated rumours, on who could have been behind the attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.

What looks like the mystery of the century to Marc Bennetts is absolutely clear to everyone.

We would like to remind the seasoned journalist about the rather straightforward sequence of the events.

Since the start of the Nord Stream 2 project, all its parties, both in Russia and in other countries, had been subjected to unprecedented economic and political pressure by Washington. Doing their best to harm the project and hinder its implementation, the Americans went as far as adopt a bill in 2020 on punishment for those involved in or providing services to laying the pipes. Washington never made a secret that its main goal was to get Europe to break away from the Russian energy resources.

Overall, US officials have been openly saying all these years that disabling the gas pipelines would allow the United States to increase its LNG deliveries to the EU, which clearly points the finger at whose who stand behind the blasts on the Nord Stream pipelines.

Politicians and investigative authorities in Germany, Denmark and Sweden are following the lead of their US overlords. They have rejected calls from Russia to join their secret investigations and are actually considering ways to conceal the facts that are obvious to all rational people.

Mr Bennetts failed to remind the Times’ readers about the self-exposing statements US President Joe Biden made at the February 7, 2022 news conference. He said: “If Russia invades -- that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine, again -- then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.” It is also revealing that member of the European Parliament Radoslaw Sikorski, who was Poland’s Foreign Minister back then, in all sincerity tweeted a few hours after the blast: “Thank you, USA.” A few weeks ago, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing: “I am, and I think the administration is, very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.”

Marc Bennetts has unintentionally overturned his own speculations by citing Western officials who regard claims about Russia’s guilt as unreliable.  For example, according to former head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) August Hanning, countries like the United States, Ukraine, Poland and Great Britain were against the Nord Stream 2 project and could be interested in taking the pipes out of action.

As for speculations about Russia shooting itself in the foot to provoke instability on Europe’s energy market, we would like to point out that Russia has always been a reliable supplier of energy to Europe. Russia did not stop oil and gas deliveries to Europe during the Cold War, after the Soviet Union’s collapse, when NATO approached our borders, or after the Europeans launched a frenzied sanctions campaign in 2014, which is still ongoing.

We suggest that Marc Bennetts, the Times’ editorial office and British readers consider the following simple questions: Why did Russia build the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, invested billions of dollars, worked on the political stage to promote the project, and is now considering possible methods of rebuilding it? The strange anti-logic only looks logical in the warped minds of sworn British Russophobes, who have only one answer to all questions: #RussiansDidIt.

Those who stubbornly refuse to see the obvious should read an item posted by respected American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who writes that the blasts were a secret US operation to plant remotely triggered explosives during NATO’s Baltops 22 naval exercises.

The question of who attacked the Nord Stream pipelines has become rhetorical, and Russia had nothing to do with the explosions. Mr Bennetts, if you are a professional journalist, you should apologise for your ungrounded allegations, review your errors and write a new, serious item based on all the available facts and new evidence. In this item, you – if you are a professional – should name the real organisers and executors of that act of sabotage, who are lying low across the Atlantic. Who are you, Mr Bennetts, a propagandist or a journalist? This is probably yet another rhetorical question.

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