Sabotage in the Baltic
On September 26,2022,
a team of six Ukrainian divers blew up the $20 billion Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline
that lied 80 meters below the surface in the very dark and very polluted Baltic
Sea at a cost of about $250,000. The 760-mile pipeline stretched from Russia to
Germany and was to supply cheap gas for German industry. In this remarkable
feat of investigative journalism Wall Street Journal reporter Bojan Pancevski
tells us the story as to how the operation came together and the police work in
Germany to uncover the source of the sabotage.
The operation was
conceived shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was put together by
an off-the books operation of former SBU (Ukraine CIA) and GUR (Ukraine
military intelligence) called The Start-Up. In order to protect their
identities, the author calls the two leaders The General and the Colonel,
respectively. They are high enough in the bureaucracies to get things done even
though at time they were officially retired and later in jail. The purpose of
the operation was to cut off the dollars that Putin received from selling
natural gas to the West that fed his war machine.
Pancevski uses many
aliases for the leading characters in his book. The most interesting is Freya,
a woman in her late 30’s who in a former life graced the cover of an erotic
magazine. She is full of spunk, and it was her who actually placed the charges
that blew up the pipeline.
Because much of the
action took place on German territory, the German Federal Police became
involved. Here we follow The Chief Inspector engage in the extraordinary
nitty-gritty police work to piece together what happened and to ultimately name
the Ukrainians involved in the plot. For example, a speed camera in Germany
caught the license plate of an automobile used by the Ukrainians.
Piece-by-piece the Chief Inspector solves the crime. However, when seeking help
from Poland, he was turned down because Poland rightfully viewed the Ukrainians
as heroes deserving of medals.
The author gives a
great deal of background on the entire Nord Stream endeavor. Despite U.S.
opposition, Germany’s need for cheap gas over-rode the strategic imperative of
not funding Russia. Indeed, once Putin understood that his invasion would not
stop the flow of gas, he green—lit the Ukrainian invasion. He was wrong in that
assumption. The pipeline represented a massive outlet for Gazprom, Russia’s
leading gas producer. The German-Russian relationship on gas was more than cozy
as Pancevski notes that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder ends up on
the Gazprom board. Did someone say payoff?
We also discover the
CEO of Nord Stream was Mattias Warnig. Early in his career he was member of the
Stasi, the East German secret police and later became a good buddy of Putin. It
just shows how important Germany’s lust for cheap gas was and Angela Merkel was
no exception.
We also learn that
much of the Ukraine Army is funded privately with individual oligarchs and
businesses putting up money for individual units. That is how The Start-up was
funded. Furter Voldamyr Zelensky is not quite the boy scout his press portrays
him and his former deputy Andry Yermak participated in more than his share of
corruption. Nevertheless, that while both The General and The Colonel expected
Zelensky to flee after the invasion, he did not. Lastly, we learn that the CIA
station in Kiev was and is very active and there are American boots on the
ground training Ukrainians how to use U.S. equipment. My guess is, not
mentioned in the book, the special forces were and are on temporary duty to the
CIA giving Washington deniability.
Bojan Pencevski has
written a nonfictional spy thriller that gripped me throughout reading his
book. We witness unbelievable human courage on the part of the Ukrainians and
excellent police work on the part of the Germans. It should be a leading
candidate for the major book awards!
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