What happened to Nord Stream, from robot sabotage to TNT

by Anna Lisa Rapanà

The use of

usually involved in maintenance and up to

: new possible details emerge from the various analyzes of the suspicious explosions in the Baltic Sea in recent days that caused the leaks in the

gas pipeline , thus introducing new elements to the attempt to join the points to identify the hand in what is referred to by many as a

.

While in the past few hours it was announced that the gas leak from the pipeline has ended and that "there is still gas in the pipeline".

The robots and the hypothesis of the Russian hand

"It could have been maintenance robots that planted the bombs that caused four leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline, about 80 meters deep in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark, they operate inside the pipeline structure during repair works ": this is the opinion of experts reported by the Guardian and it is a precious indication that could open new scenarios in the reconstruction of what happened and in the search for responsibility.

This according to the experts themselves, according to which "if this theory were to prove correct, the sophisticated nature of the attack and the power of the explosion would add weight to the suspicions that the attacks were carried out by a state power,

The 500 kilos of TNT

According to intelligence sources cited by the German magazine Spiegel, the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines were hit in four places by explosions triggered by 500 kilos of TNT, the equivalent of the explosive power of an airplane bomb.

German investigators reportedly took seismic readings to calculate the strength of the explosions and they believe divers or remote-controlled robots may be able to visit the leak sites as early as this weekend, and collect further information again useful to reconstructions, all of which are still in progress.

The effects of explosions and chemical weapons

Meanwhile, the details on the possible consequences and risks that emerged from the explosions with the consequent losses are also mounting: the alarm is raised by the Finnish Environment Agency (Syke) reporting that in the area in where the first leak of the pipeline was detected on Monday is the largest

.

This is the Danish Basin of Bornholm, Syke underlines, who in a note also stresses the "probability that the effect of gas leaks on chemical weapons is minimal, since they are buried several kilometers away but the effects are still uncertain".

However, the agency said it will continue to investigate the matter together with the Chemical Weapons Prohibition Treaty Institute at the University of Helsinki.

Leaks interrupted

Meanwhile concrete reassurances arrive on a level, with the confirmation that the gas leakage of the pipeline is now over, after a balance has been reached between the gas pressure and the water pressure.

"The pressure of the water has more or less closed the pipeline so that the gas inside it does not escape," said the spokesman for the management company of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Ulrich Lissek.

"The bottom line is that there is still gas in the pipeline," he added.

The methane cloud does not come close to Italy

Good news then on the tail of the methane cloud that formed following the gas leak on September 27, but which "has not been detected at the moment in northern Italy. It could therefore have diluted in the route, having changed trajectory or not yet being detectable in our country ", according to experts.