The blasts which wrecked the network taking Russian gas to Germany have been blamed on various players – we assess the possible instigators
With its brooding pine woods and mist-shrouded beaches, the Danish island of Bornholm has long been a setting for Scandi-noir intrigue. In days of old, trolls were said to haunted its many caves. In Cold War times, its radar towers at the mouth of the Baltic helped the West eavesdrop on Russia and East Germany.
No mystery though, is quite on a scale with the one that began bubbling up through the waters off Bornholm’s coast two weeks ago. At around 2am on September 26, German engineers noted a dramatic drop in pressure in Nord Stream 2, the newly built pipeline that ships Russian gas to Germany. Later that day, the same problem was reported on its older sister pipeline, Nord Stream 1, which runs nearby.
A Danish air force jet that investigated found three huge gas leaks in the sea, creating vast, bubbling cauldrons on the surface as if new volcanic islands were forming underneath. Over subsequent days, up to 350,000 tonnes of pure methane was released, some in bubbles more than half a mile wide. Bornholm residents could smell it from their island and were warned to keep away.
