Shoot the hostage

Speed was a hit action movie in 1994 starring Keanu Reeve and Sandra Bullock. It grossed profit of USD 350  million on a USD30 -37 million budget.

One memorable part of the movie was a challenge in a hostage situation. The remedy to a threat with a hostage is to shoot the hostage. This is an interesting strategy as it neutralizes the threat.

Since the beginning of Russia "special military operation". USA has been trying to convince Europe to continue their support to Ukraine, with much hesitation from the later. 

The European Union has a strong dependence on gas from Russia, Up to 60% of their gas comes from Russia delivering a nominal capacity of 55 billion cubic meters per Anum through Nord Stream pipelines.

Russia not only threaten, but acted on it with Gazprom, the operator for the pipelines cutting the supply by 20% of the maximum capacity in July 2022 and shut down the pipeline for 10 days claiming difficulty in repair works due to sanction against Russia. 

Gazprom again halted gas supply for 3 days in August 2022 and announce that pipeline 1 would remain shut off in September 2022 to fix a gas leak at the station near St Petersburg, again hinting on sanctions against Russia as the main cause of repair delay.

It is in fact Putin hinting threat to the European Union the consequence of going against him. He is holding the European Union by the balls and expecting them to eventually bow to him when winter arrives.

Then the strange turn of events in September 2022 with multiple ruptures appears on both Nord Stream pipeline 1 and 2 leaking natural gas into the Nordic Sea, causing pressure drop on both pipelines.

It was suspected to be an act of sabotage. The question is who?

It is true that Russia is holding the European Union hostage with the pipelines. However, for the threat to work, the hostage has to remain unharmed. Putin has to give the European Union a glimpse of hope should they comply with his wishes, destroying the pipeline will render the threat useless as there is no U-turn once it is executed.

Ture enough, it is Russia's initiation to offer to fix the problem, they have more interest to make sure the pipelines remain operational.

To find out who may be the party initiating the sabotage, we have to understand who has the interest and the ability to do so.

It is definitely not Ukraine as they may not have the resources nor the knowhow to do so. Afterall, they have no access to the Nordic Sea.

I believe the severing of Nordic Stream pipelines would benefit the US allies most. Removing the threat will rid the one Europe hesitation to fully support Ukraine against Russia. Furthermore, USA has the resource and the ability to do so.