The Vremya program tells about the investigation launched in Germany into explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. Presenter Ekaterina Andreeva prefaces the plot of Ivan Blagoy as follows:
“Already now, as German investigators have stated, there are enough facts that the gas pipelines were deliberately damaged – they were blown up. It is also noted that this is a serious attack on Germany's security of supply.
To the place of emergency, in the area of the Danish island of Bornholm, came two German ships with divers. What the Germans can find, we will soon find out. But seven years ago, objects that clearly did not belong to peaceful products were already found under gas pipelines. <…> And what you are about to see has never been seen before by anyone except the special services.”
The story shows several photographs showing a certain apparatus lying on the seabed next to a gas pipeline. The correspondent especially emphasizes that the apparatus almost touches the pipe with its nose.
Then the floor is taken by the official representative of Gazprom, Sergey Kupriyanov:
“On November 6, 2015, during a scheduled visual inspection of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, the NATO underwater mine destroyer Sea Fox was discovered. It lay exactly in the space between the gas pipelines.”
The correspondent further explains that these devices are of two types – with sensors for surveying underwater objects and with an explosive charge to perform the functions of a kamikaze drone. Then Kupriyanov continues:
“Then the explosive device was removed and neutralized by the Swedish armed forces. Gas transportation, stopped due to the state of emergency, was resumed. NATO said the underwater fuse was lost in the exercise. These are NATO exercises, when a military explosive device turns out to be exactly under our gas pipeline.”
In 2015, the SeaFox unmanned underwater vehicle was actually found next to the gas pipeline. Only he had nothing to do with NATO, and this was stated in the then RIA Novosti report:
“The underwater object, discovered on November 6 in international waters south of Gotland near the Nord Stream gas pipeline (“Nord Stream”), is a Swedish SeaFox radio-controlled vehicle that is used for mine clearance. This is stated in a press release published on Tuesday on the website of the Swedish Armed Forces after the analysis of the found apparatus was completed.
“The cable-guided ship was lost during one of the exercises in the spring of 2014, far from where it was found,” the press release reads.
According to the military, the device did not pose a danger to either the gas pipeline or maritime traffic due to the built-in function that allows you to neutralize the device. The Swedish military removed and rendered harmless the ship in the middle of last week, promising to identify it then."
Sweden decided to join NATO only in 2022, and the accession procedure has not yet been completed.
Probably, the device was lost during the Open Spirit exercises off the coast of Latvia in May 2014, during which the clearance of underwater mines was practiced . Four ships of the Swedish Navy took part in the exercise. During Open Spirit – 2014, mine clearance was carried out in the Irben Strait, which connects the Gulf of Riga with the Baltic Sea; the distance between the strait and the Swedish island of Gotland is about 220 km.
Open Spirit is a regular joint event of countries bordering the Baltic Sea; Until 2014, the Russian Navy also participated in it.