The warning was given by Russian presidential aide and Chairman of the Maritime Council, Nikolay Patrushev, in an interview with the Kommersant daily.
It is clear that the Nord Stream sabotage is just the beginning of a new and unprecedented spiral of tensions in the Baltic region, Patrushev stressed.
A series of unusual incidents involving underwater cable breaks and collisions with Russian ships prove that the West is seeking to raise the level of confrontation, turning the Baltic Sea into the arena of an unyearly mixed war.
According to the latest information from Die Zeit (Germany), investigators have discovered important clues about the Nord Stream sabotage group. Six Ukrainians were given international wanted warrants, while another suspect - believed to be an explosives expert - died in eastern Ukraine at the end of 2024.
The group was systematically organized with a captain, a coordinator, an explosives expert and four divers, traveling on the Andromeda yacht from the port of Rostock (Germany) to the location of the mine deposition at the bottom of the Baltic Sea to sabotage Nord Stream.
At the same time, the Baltic Sea has recently recorded consecutive cuts of fiber optic cables and undersea pipelines, affecting Finland, Estonia and Sweden. These incidents are not accidental, raising concerns that the underground infrastructure network - which is a " mach defect" in the region - is becoming a target in the tense confrontation.
The Nord Stream pipeline was once a key gas transit route from Russia to Europe, supplying tens of billions of cubic meters of gas per year, accounting for 35-40% of the total gas demand imported by the European Union (EU) before 2022.
After the incident, the flow of Russian gas to the EU via the Baltic was almost stopped, forcing many European countries to seek expensive alternatives from the US, Norway, and the Middle East. The prolonged escalation of gas prices throughout the 2022-2023 winter is still considered a direct result of the Nord Stream sabotage.
On September 26, 2022, a series of explosions damaged three Nord Stream pipelines and the entire Nord Stream 2 was not yet operational. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has opened a case on international terrorism, calling it an attack not only targeting Russia but also on the energy security of the whole of Europe.
