It’s been a little while since we heard anything new about the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline last year and the MSM hasn’t seemed to show a lot of interest in it for some mysterious reason. But there was a new update this week. Denmark has been investigating the scene for months and now they’ve identified an unknown “object” near one of the pipes. When the discovery was first announced, Vladimir Putin said that he suspected it could be part of another remote detonation device, but the Dutch now have a different theory. In any event, they’ve invited the Russians to come to pick it up if they’re really interested. (CBS News)

Denmark has invited the Russian-controlled operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help recover a mystery object that was spotted near the pipeline, six months after sections were sabotaged. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who revealed the discovery of the object earlier this month, said experts believe that it could be a signal antenna to activate an explosive in that part of the pipeline.

German, Swedish and Danish authorities are investigating the undersea explosions that sparked four leaks on the two Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September, seven months after Russia invaded Ukraine.

To clarify the steps the Danish are taking here, it sounds as if they still plan to attempt to recover the object. But they want Gazprom to weigh in first and get their thoughts on how to handle it since they still own the majority of the project. Personally, I think the international community would rather have Denmark pick it up than have it disappear into the Kremlin somewhere.

The latest theory is that the device might be a maritime smoke buoy. I tried checking around and looking at a number of the most common smoke buoys. The ones for amateurs didn’t seem to match, but Comet makes one that’s specifically sold in the Baltic states that seems like it could be around 16″ tall. If you let it accumulate enough see grass on it, who knows? It might be a match, though the object in the picture still looks a bit larger in diameter.

If it does turn out to be a smoke buoy or some other conventional bit of sea debris, we’re pretty much right back where we started. If it’s an explosive of some sort and they can get hold of it without detonating it, perhaps it can be traced.

It would be nice to solve this mystery. I’m still totally unpersuaded that Putin was enough of a dunce to blow up his own pipeline. But I’m also not ready to sign on with a Substack story from a single anonymous source claiming that it’s 100% verified that Biden’s team did this and tried to keep it secret. Because that’s just crazy. Then again, this is 2023, and crazy is the new normal, so who knows? The New York Times story claiming that a “pro-Ukrainian group” was responsible isn’t a totally outlandish idea, but Zelensky is denying it (as you would expect him to) and nobody is stepping up to take credit.

It would be nice if we could put this mystery to bed once and for all. If Denmark fishes it out of the water, perhaps we’ll get some sort of an answer. Stay tuned.