ArcaMax

PARIS – Three sentences slipped under the radar during former President Donald Trump's recent freewheeling online chat with tech billionaire, supporter and X platform (ex-Twitter) owner, Elon Musk. And they're explosive – as in, linked to an actual explosion.

“We were going to supply Europe with oil. I had stopped the Russian pipeline and we were going to supply them with oil and gas. We were going to make a fortune,” Trump said, lamenting the fact that the Biden administration had reversed the sanctions imposed by Trump on the Nord Stream pipeline system carrying cheap Russian gas into Germany.

Both Republican and Democratic officials had long viewed the pipeline as a boon to Russia, but never mentioned the fact that this critical economic lifeline allowed German and European industry to rival the United States on the global playing field. Biden had indulged Germany in May 2021 by lifting sanctions as part of a “pledge to rebuild relationships with our allies and partners in Europe,” as Secretary of State Antony Blinken explained.

The reprieve would only be temporary.

Even before the Ukraine conflict went hot, Biden stood beside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House in early 2022, sounding like a mob boss and threatening to make Nord Stream disappear if Russia moved into Ukraine. Interesting that the lowest-hanging fruit in terms of options for punishing Russia also happened to have the added bonus of knocking a supposed ally off the global chessboard as an economic competitor. And Scholz just stood there quietly like he was daydreaming about the dinner menu.

Shortly after the Ukraine conflict kicked off, Biden went over to Europe and promised to sell the continent all the gas that it needed if it shunned Russia’s. The European establishment fell right in line. It wasn’t long before Germany’s finance minister, Robert Habeck, was running around bragging about how he was cutting down his shower time, sticking it to Putin by denying him revenues from heating the water. French President Emmanuel Macron was suddenly modeling turtlenecks as a stylish alternative to winter heating. The switch from dependence on Russia to dependence on the U.S. ended up costing a fortune, as average European citizens and businesses continue to notice.

Still, there was always the possibility that Europe might be tempted to go back to its ex – that is, until that particular bridge was literally blown up.

In September 2022, Nord Stream was mysteriously bombed. Ever since, some wild narratives have emerged. The latest version out of Germany last week centers around a German arrest warrant issued for suspect, “Volodymyr Z”, a diving instructor based in Poland. He’s pictured in the German press wearing full scuba gear, but not with the 500 kg of dynamite that would have been required to blast the multiple steel pipes encased in concrete at a depth of around 100 meters. Polish prosecutors say that he recently fled to Ukraine. Apparently, German officials cared so much about getting this guy that they couldn't be bothered inputting his details into the border patrol system.

The Wall Street Journal has also chimed in, reporting https://archive.fo/Z0XgG that the whole idea was ginned up by a bunch of drunken Ukrainian officers. Like college frat boys, except blowing up infrastructure instead of jumping off the roof into the pool. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, we’re told, was the wise parent who said no, while Valerii Zaluzhnyi – the former top Ukrainian general who just conveniently happens to be Zelensky’s arch enemy – insisted on forging ahead anyway.

So we’re supposed to believe that Zaluzhnyi, fresh off his overhyped dud of a counteroffensive, managed to single-handedly arrange this perfect act of terrorism, in one of the most surveilled waters in the world, with a random bunch of frat clowns. By the way, Zaluzhnyi apparently upset Zelensky so much that he subsequently made him ambassador to Britain.

Enter a random former German spymaster to script doctor this mess, now going around saying that Ukraine and Poland did it.

At least he’s acknowledging that some kind of state had to be involved to pull this off. Except that those two countries don’t sneeze without asking Washington’s permission. Too bad that top German spy didn’t also offer an explanation for why, if Germany really figured that Ukraine did it, they’re still sending Kyiv weapons and cash.

So where does the CIA come into this whole spy thriller? Well, they were the voice of reason, the Wall Street Journal reports – the ones who talked Zelensky into trying to reel in “Volodymyr Z", elusive Ghost of the Baltic Sea, and his Ukrainian drinking buddies. But alas, anyone who has faced the challenge of trying to stop a bunch of guys at a pub from performing random acts of terrorism after a few cold ones knows that’s an uphill battle.

On the CIA’s own website, it says that the agency “conducts covert actions at the direction of the president” who, in this case, had been openly musing about Nord Stream not existing, along with much of Washington. Trump’s recent interview admissions effectively confirm a long-standing bipartisan agenda to cut Europe off from Nord Stream and replace Russia as the dealer. About the only thing on which Trump and Biden seem to disagree is the means of accomplishing that. Curiously, this is all conspicuously absent from the current version of the script for this ongoing spy thriller.