Follow us on social

Latest Nord Stream break: propaganda, patsy, or truth?

Latest Nord Stream break: propaganda, patsy, or truth?

Paper cites unnamed sources to finger senior military officer who is already in jail.

Reporting | QiOSK

The Washington Post has a new bombshell revelation: a senior military officer connected to the highest levels of Ukrainian intelligence — who also happens to be in jail on other charges — supposedly played a key role in the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage last year.

According to "people familiar with the planning," Roman Chervinsky, "a decorated 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukraine’s special operations forces," was the coordinator of the operation, but was not the "planner." That went even higher than him — to officers reporting to the highest military officer, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny — but not all the way to President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was purposefully left out out of the loop.

Chervinsky, through a lawyer, has denied this story and calls it "Russian propaganda."

The pipelines were blown up Sept. 26, 2022. There have been several theories raised, but the West had Russians pegged as the culprits from the start. That shifted as it became more clear via investigations that it was a state actor but likely not Moscow. Veteran reporter Sy Hersh produced an extensive report in February 2023 accusing a secret U.S. Navy diver team, with the authority of the Biden administration, of the sabotage. Almost immediately after, the Western mainstream focused on a "rogue" pro-Ukrainian outfit, and more recently, Ukrainian military complicity.

The Washington Post is homing in on that last theory here, using in part the spring Discord leaks, which appeared to show the U.S. was concerned that Ukraine had been planning such a attack, as proof that Chervinsky may have helped to finally pull it off. The paper raises other secret operations led reportedly by Chervinsky, including that he also “planned and implemented” operations to kill pro-Russian separatist leaders in Ukraine and to “abduct a witness” in the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over the eastern Donbas region in 2014.

Chervinsky is now serving time for being involved in a plot that was supposed to lure a Russian pilot to defect to Ukraine but ended up in a Russian attack on Ukrainian forces that killed a Ukrainian soldier and 17 others. Chervinsky and others say the operation was sanctioned by the military. According to WaPo:

Chervinsky has said he was not responsible for the Russian attack and that in trying to persuade the pilot to fly to Ukraine and hand over his aircraft, he was acting under orders. He calls his arrest and prosecution political retribution for his criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his administration. Chervinsky has said publicly that he suspects Andriy Yermak, one of Zelensky’s closest advisers, of spying for Russia. He has also accused the Zelensky administration of failing to sufficiently prepare the country for Russia’s invasion.

Now he is being fingered by unnamed sources that WaPo calls "people familiar with the operation." (Recall, Hersh's damning report last year was excoriated by mainstream news and the commentariat for relying on one unnamed source.) Ukrainian officials are not commenting on these recent revelations, which continue to keep the U.S. far out of the taint of complicity. Per WaPo:

U.S. officials have at times privately chastised Ukrainian intelligence and military officials for launching attacks that risked provoking Russia to escalate its war on Ukraine. But Washington’s unease has not always dissuaded Kyiv.

In June 2022, the Dutch military intelligence agency, the MIVD, obtained information that Ukraine might be planning to attack Nord Stream. Officials at the CIA relayed to Zaluzhny through an intermediary that the United States opposed such an operation, according to people familiar with those conversations.

Questions will obviously be raised about whether Chervinsky is being used as a convenient fall guy or patsy and the timing of these unnamed sources suddenly coming forward with information that has been sought after for over a year in myriad official and news investigations.


Ex-intelligence officer Roman Chervinsky spoke about the operation at the Kanatove airfield with Censor.Net before his arrest.

( https://censor.net/en/v3414307/You Tube)

Reporting | QiOSK
Munich Dispatch: Vance lectures Euros on democracy & tolerance
Top photo credit: MSC/Lennart Preiss

Munich Dispatch: Vance lectures Euros on democracy & tolerance

Europe

MUNICH, GERMANY — The Munich Security Conference started this Friday in a city recovering from an attack in which a suspect drove his car into a crowd of people, leaving 36 people injured on Thursday morning.

The international meeting also takes place against the backdrop of the German parliamentary elections on Feb. 23. Friedrich Merz, the chancellor candidate of the center-right Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) — which comfortably leads the polls with around 30% of support — could be spotted in the first row of the conference hall. Merz held a short meeting with United States Vice President J.D. Vance earlier in the day.

keep readingShow less
'People-centered peace' lost a major advocate this week
Top photo credit: Screenshot TRT World (6/5/23)

'People-centered peace' lost a major advocate this week

Europe

On February 12, President Trump revealed he had talked to Putin about a peace deal in Ukraine, and Defense Secretary Hegseth gave a speech about what a peace settlement would not entail (NATO membership, US protection, return of occupied territories).

This left Ukrainians reeling with feelings of betrayal and being steamrolled, while European leaders looked shellshocked at finding themselves sidelined. I thought the right moment had arrived to finally write a long-planned article, on inclusive, people-centered peace-making, with my co-author Wolfgang Sporrer.

keep readingShow less
Nuclear missile
Top image credit: Eric Poulin via shutterstock.com

Time to DOGE the nuclear triad

Military Industrial Complex

The Pentagon is in the midst of a three-decades long plan to build a new generation of nuclear weapons, and it is not going well — so badly that the Air Force announced this week that it will pause large parts of the development of its new intercontinental ballistic missile, known officially as the Sentinel.

The pause will impact design and launch facilities in California and Utah and is projected to throw the project 18 to 24 months off schedule.

keep readingShow less

Trump transition

Latest

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.