a fourth leak identified in the Baltic Sea, announce the Swedish coastguard

A fourth leak has been identified in the Baltic Sea above the Nord Stream gas pipelines, targeted by suspicious explosions, the Swedish coast guard said on Thursday (September 29th). “There are two leaks on the Swedish side and two leaks on the Danish side”, told AFP an official of the Swedish authority. So far, authorities in both countries have reported three leaks: two on Nord Stream 1 and one on Nord Stream 2.

The coast guard could not immediately specify why the report of this new leak had taken place only late. But the two leaks on the Swedish side are located in the same area, they said. These vast leaks cause significant marine bubbling several hundred meters wide on the surface which makes it impossible to immediately inspect the works, according to the authorities. This has worrying environmental consequences: the escaping gas is essentially composed of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG), the second emitted by human activities causing global warming.

On Wednesday evening, the Swedish security (Säpo) declared having “took over the preliminary investigation into the events on Nord Stream from the police”. “The reason retained is currently aggravated sabotage”the service said. Russia is the subject from all suspicion. In response, Russian diplomacy implicitly accused the United States, which the White House judges “ridiculous”. On Wednesday evening, the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office also announced that the security services (FSB) had opened an investigation for “act of international terrorism”. A meeting of the UN Security Council will be held Friday in New York on this subject, at the request of Moscow.