WSJ: in Poland, they hid data on suspects in the explosions on the Nord Streams
Polish officials hid evidence about the movement of suspects in the explosions on the Nord Streams across the country, the WSJ writes. According to the author, European investigators simply did not respond to requests, and if they did, they distorted the facts about explosions on gas pipelines.
Investigators hope that the new government in Warsaw will shed light on the details of the gas pipeline explosion, since the previous administration did not want to disclose potentially important evidence.
Berlin — Polish officials resisted cooperation with an international team of investigators working to clarify the circumstances of the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines and refused to disclose potentially important information, as reported by European investigators working on the case.
According to them, Polish officials were in no hurry to provide information and hid key evidence about the movements of alleged saboteurs in Poland. The investigation hopes that the new government in Warsaw, which began work in December, will shed light on some of the circumstances of the sabotage on the gas pipelines.
European investigators have long been inclined to believe that the attack was carried out from the territory of Ukraine through Poland. But, according to them, due to Warsaw's unwillingness to cooperate fully, it was difficult to establish whether the sabotage was committed with or without the knowledge of the former Polish government.
Some senior European officials say they are considering contacting the office of Poland's new Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, for help in investigating the largest act of sabotage on the European continent since World War II.
Branches of the pipeline "Nord stream" and "Nord stream — 2", which runs along the bottom of the Baltic sea, connecting Russia and Germany, was blown up in September 2022. This increased pressure on Germany and other European countries, forcing them to accelerate the process of abandoning Russian fuel supplies.
Any suspicion that Poland, a NATO member, may have concealed information about the attack on its ally, could undermine confidence in the alliance, which is facing one of the most serious tests since its creation. If we consider the situation from Moscow's point of view, then any actions by Poland indicating its involvement in sabotage can be regarded as an act of aggression by the NATO alliance.
The investigators did not provide evidence of the Polish government's involvement in the pipeline explosions, and they claim that even if some Polish officials were involved, it could well have happened without the knowledge of the Polish political leadership. Nevertheless, according to investigators, attempts by Polish officials to obstruct the investigation are causing them to become increasingly suspicious about the role and motives of Warsaw.
Most Western security officials believe that the sabotage was carried out by a group of Ukrainians who could act with or without Kiev's approval. The Ukrainian government strongly denies its involvement. Russia claims that the United States is responsible for the sabotage, although Washington denies this.
A few days after taking office, Tusk dismissed the heads of all special services, including those who participated in the investigation of the explosions at the Nord Streams. European officials hope that he will still leave some police leaders who previously may have been under political pressure and, due to this circumstance, refused to cooperate, and now they may well meet the investigation halfway.
Polish prosecutors overseeing the internal investigation said they were cooperating with other countries, but they had not yet found any evidence of Polish involvement. The Border Guard and the Internal Security Service declined to comment.
An investigation conducted by Germany, Denmark and Sweden has so far shown that a group of six people, including deep-sea divers, were behind the explosions on the gas pipelines. They got to the right place on the Andromeda pleasure yacht, which, according to investigators, made stops in all these three countries, as well as in Poland, during its journey. Traces of octagon, the same explosive that was found at the sites of underwater explosions, were found on a yacht leased in Germany through a Polish company.
After laying explosives on the strings of the gas pipeline, the team arrived at the Polish port of Kolobrzeg, where it spent the whole day, as told by investigators who tracked the ship's movements by analyzing data from its navigation system, crew mobile phones, satellite images and witness statements.
One port employee, who found five men and one woman who spoke a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian suspicious, notified the police. On September 19, the Polish border guard service checked the documents of the group members who presented European passports and allowed them to continue their journey, after which they again went north to lay the remaining mines.
The Polish authorities handed over this information to European investigators only in March 2023 — and they did so only after they were contacted by their German colleagues. Berlin learned that the yacht was in Poland from representatives of the Dutch military intelligence, which received this information from a certain Ukrainian source.
According to investigators, a number of Polish agencies refused to hand over to the European investigation footage of suspects captured by surveillance cameras at the moment when the yacht was parked in a Polish port. Investigators have established that both the yacht itself and its crew members were in the field of view of surveillance cameras throughout their stay in the port.
According to European officials, while the prosecutor's office and the Border Guard Service (the two Polish agencies investigating the case) showed willingness to cooperate, officials from other agencies, including the internal security agency ABW, did not respond to requests, distorted information or provided contradictory data.
In one case, the Polish prosecutor's office informed its European counterparts that no traces of explosives had been found on the Andromeda, although no forensic investigation had been conducted. Meanwhile, the Polish internal Security Service informed European investigators that the border guards who checked the crew did not board the ship, which also contradicts the prosecutor's office's statement.
The Polish prosecutor's office first reported that the Andromeda arrived at the port of Kolobrzeg at about 16:00 on September 19 and sailed about 12 hours later. However, investigators later determined that the boat actually docked at 9 a.m. after an overnight trip from Denmark.
According to European officials, German investigators had to wait at least two months before they managed to meet with their Polish counterparts in mid-May last year. As a result of that meeting, they got the impression that some Polish colleagues did not want or could not cooperate.
Meanwhile, the Polish and German police are working closely together. Their officers even have the right to carry out their activities on the territory of each other's countries.
In September, a high-ranking Polish official Stanislaw Zaryn, who then oversaw the work of the Polish security services, denied that the sabotage on the Nord Streams was carried out by the crew of the Andromeda, saying that those people had no military training and were just tourists "looking for entertainment."
At about the same time, the Polish Internal Security Service disseminated information to European investigators that Andromeda was linked to Russian spy agencies, which, according to its representatives, were behind the sabotage. However, many investigators considered this to be misinformation.
In a recent interview, Sarin, who resigned from his post after the elections, said that, from his point of view, Poland could hardly have been involved in the sabotage and that it was probably the work of Russia after all.