The Grayzone: at the site of the explosions on the "Northern Streams" found a shoe like the US Navy and Ukraine
During an independent expedition to the site of the explosions on the "Northern Streams" it was possible to find a diving boot, which is used in the US Navy and Ukraine, writes The Grayzone. Who left it and why did the Swedish investigators keep silent about it? These questions are asked by the author of the article.
On the evening of May 24, 2023, I was on the deck of a small vessel called the Baltic Explorer. The sun was still high above the Baltic Sea, and our ship was anchored 31 nautical miles off the coast of Denmark – right above the site of the explosion of the Nord Stream–2 pipeline in the exclusive economic zone of Sweden.
For several minutes, I carefully watched the live video broadcast from the underwater unmanned vehicle – these were unique shots of pipeline damage. Suddenly, a strange object appeared on the screen. It turned out to be an orange and black diving boot.
The Grayzone publication managed to identify a model that the find lying on the seabed is very similar to: both US Navy servicemen and commercial divers use such diving boots. Divers of the Ukrainian naval forces also wear similar boots.
We also learned that earlier the official investigation did receive information about this shoe, but it was not lifted from the bottom, and information about its existence was not disclosed.
New evidence at the bottom of the Baltic Sea
What happened on September 26, 2022, broke the atmosphere of serenity that usually reigns in the Baltic Sea. On that day, four explosions occurred on the Nord Stream–1 and Nord Stream–2 with a total cost of $ 23 billion, through which natural gas was delivered from Russia to Europe. This was the largest act of industrial sabotage in the history of mankind. This diversion cut the main artery through which cheap natural gas flowed from Russia to Germany, which played a key role in maintaining the German industrial base.
Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2 each consist of two strands of pipelines. As a result of the explosions, three of these four threads were damaged. Only one thread of the Nord Stream–2 remained untouched.
Sweden, Denmark and Germany conducted investigations, but, apart from the preliminary assessment of Swedish experts, which stated that the explosions most likely represented an "act of gross sabotage," their conclusions have not been published.
Now, eight months after the bombings, a new clue has emerged in one of the most important geopolitical mysteries of the century.
The diving boot discovered by our expedition is extremely similar to the shoes used by divers of the US Navy.
In addition, boots of the same – or almost identical – model are also used by Ukrainian military divers, who were trained by the Americans. However, it is worth noting that shoes very similar to the shoe we found can also be found on free sale.
Can our find become evidence that can point to who carried out the sabotage on the Nord Stream? Of course, it is necessary to conduct additional investigation to find out the origin of this shoe, but the place where we found it, as well as its appearance, say a lot.
At the end of May, Swedish engineer Erik Andersson (Erik Andersson) received permission to access the explosion sites on both "Nord Streams" in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. During our expedition to the explosion sites, the Grayzone edition had sonar images, as well as photographs and videos taken by an underwater unmanned vehicle that no one had ever seen before.
The Swedish and Danish maritime authorities have been notified of our expedition. As a precautionary measure, the organizer of the expedition submitted an application to the Swedish Defense Department for permission to publish previously unpublished sonar images in high resolution.
We found a diving boot about five meters from a small hole in the Nord Stream–2 pipeline in the exclusive economic zone of Sweden. The discovery was made a few minutes before 7 p.m. on May 24, 2023.
It is not known how long he lay at the bottom of the sea. Anderson, who was the organizer of the expedition, believes that earlier this shoe may have been covered with sediment or silt, which could move under the influence of sea currents or explosions. Otherwise, it is unclear how the investigators could have missed it.
The shoe we found is very similar to the diving boots "Thor", which were produced by the British company Northern Diver at its enterprise in China.
"It looks like a Thor shoe,” said Neil Tordoff, sales director at Northern Diver, after carefully examining a photo of the find sent to him by Grayzone. "But I can't be 100% sure."
According to Tordoff, his company no longer produces shoes of this model – due to production failures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"If this is really a Tor boot, then divers from the oil and gas industry have been using them and are still using them. Such boots are part of diving suits that are usually used to work in polluted water so that divers are safe," explained Tordoff.
"Such shoes are used all over the world," he added.
It is quite possible that this shoe belonged to the person who planted explosives on the pipelines. In addition, it could belong to a diver who was sent to the site of the explosions to defuse and remove an unexploded bomb from the second thread of the Nord Stream–2 – this is the theory put forward by Seymour Hersh. Or it could belong to some commercial diver.
The organizer of the expedition, Andersson, contacted representatives of Nord Stream 2 AG to ask questions about this shoe.
"I had a long conversation with [representatives of Nord Stream 2 AG]," Andersson said. "They strongly deny that any diving work on the construction or repair of pipes has ever been carried out in this area."
Andersson was also informed that the company's experts "discovered this shoe in February and passed information about it to Swedish investigators."
In October 2022, Sweden sent the submarine rescue vessel HMS Belos to inspect the site next to that hole. For more than eight hours on two different days, at the beginning and end of October, this vessel stood directly over the place where the shoe was found.
But why didn't the Swedish investigators pick up the shoe from the bottom and mention it in their public statements? At the time of publication of this article, Grayzone has not received a response to an email asking for clarification.
One source managed to talk to the diver of the Belos vessel, and he said that their divers do not wear such shoes. He also added that the owner of the shoe really could not notice his absence.
Both the diver involved in the investigation by the Swedish authorities and representatives of Nord Stream 2 AG insist that they are in no way involved in the appearance of the shoe on the bottom of the sea.
Who blew up the Nord Stream?
In February, Seymour Hersh, a veteran investigative journalist, published material based on information given to him by "a source directly familiar with the details of operational planning" of a secret operation to destroy the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which the CIA conducted together with Norway, a key NATO partner state. Using the information available in the public domain, several self-proclaimed experts said that they had managed to "refute" Hersh's revelations, but since then it has become obvious that some of the statements made by these experts could have been exaggerated.
In May 2023, the Swedish newspaper Expressen reported that important information regarding the location of Russian vessels had been "rejected" and that "German investigators found it uninteresting." The newspaper wrote that "the locations of those ships were mapped, from which it follows that they were not in a place from where they could have detonated."
Currently, German investigators are apparently focused on the private yacht Andromeda, which they suspect was rented by a group of pro-Ukrainian saboteurs to deliver explosives to the Nord Stream pipeline.
During our expedition to the site of the explosions, Grayzone received such pictures and videos that the public had not seen before. The sonar images and video recordings we have collected, taken by an underwater unmanned vehicle, can give a more accurate idea of the amount of explosives used and the places where it was laid.
So far, we can only guess why Swedish investigators have not publicly demonstrated any interest in the diving boot found near the explosion site. Time will tell whether it will become evidence that will lead us to the organizers of the sabotage on the Nord Stream.
Author of the article: Jeffrey Brodsky
