The Wall Street Journal Nord Stream Probe Hampered by Resistance Fromwidth=700&size=1.4988290398126465&pixel_ratio=2
Poland
Investigators hope Warsaw’s new government will shed light on
gas-pipeline attack after previous administration’s reluctance to
disclose potentially crucial evidence
BERLIN—Polish officials have resisted cooperating with an international probe into the sabotage of the Nord Stream natural-gas pipelines and
failed to disclose potentially crucial evidence, according to European investigators working on the case.
Those Polish officials have been slow to provide information and
withheld key evidence about the alleged saboteurs’ movements on Polish soil, investigators said. They are now hoping the new government in
Warsaw, which took office in December, will help shed light on the
attack.
European investigators have long believed the attack was launched from Ukraine via Poland. But they say Warsaw’s failure to fully cooperate has made it hard to establish whether the attack happened with or without
the former Polish government’s knowledge, according to senior officials.
Some senior European officials say they are considering approaching the office of Donald Tusk, Poland’s new prime minister, for help in investigating the biggest act of sabotage on the European continent
since World War II.
https://images.wsj.net/im-909270?
The Nord Stream pipelines, connecting Russia to Germany underneath theb083c9c1-2c52-4e4f-8be6-731c1491cd9f-NORDSTREAM-_620px.jpg
Baltic Sea, were blown up in September 2022. This added pressure on
Germany and others to make themselves independent from Russian fuel
supplies.
Any suggestion that Poland, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member, might be concealing information about an attack on an ally could
undermine trust in an alliance that is facing one of the biggest tests
since its creation. For Moscow, any behavior by Poland hinting at an involvement in the sabotage may be seen as an aggressive act by NATO.
Investigators haven’t offered evidence linking the Polish government to
the explosions and say that even if some Polish officials were involved,
it could have been without the knowledge of the political leadership.
Yet they say efforts by Polish officials to hinder their investigation
have made them increasingly suspicious of Warsaw’s role and motives.
Most Western security officials believe that a Ukrainian crew, operating
with or without sanction from Kyiv, was behind the sabotage. Ukraine has denied any involvement. Russia said it thought the U.S. was responsible
for the attack, which the U.S. denied.
Days after taking up office, Tusk fired the heads of all the
intelligence services, including those involved in the Nord Stream
probe. European officials hope he will retain some police executives
they think might have been under political pressure not to cooperate but might now be inclined to do so.
Polish prosecutors, who oversee the domestic investigation, said that
they were cooperating with other countries but found no evidence of
Polish involvement. The border guard and the internal security service declined to comment.
https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/
An investigation by Germany, Denmark and Sweden has so far found thatwidth=700&size=1.5005861664712778&pixel_ratio=2
the pipeline was blown up by a crew of six, including deep-sea divers, traveling on a leisure yacht called Andromeda. On its voyage, Andromeda stopped in all three countries, as well as Poland, according to investigators. The boat, leased in Germany via a Polish company,
contained traces of octagon, the same explosive that was found at the underwater blast sites, they said.
After mining parts of the pipelines, the crew docked in Poland’s Baltic port of Kołobrzeg, where they spent a full day, according to
investigators who tracked the boat by analyzing its navigation system
data, the crew’s mobile-phone communications, satellite imagery and witnesses’ accounts.
A port official suspicious about the five men and one woman, all of whom spoke a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian, alerted police. On Sept. 19, Poland’s border guard checked the identification of the crew, who
produced European Union passports and were allowed to continue their
trip, sailing back up north, where they laid the rest of the mines, investigators say.
Polish authorities didn’t share this information with European investigators until March 2023—and they only did so after being
contacted by their German counterparts. Berlin was tipped off in January about the yacht’s stay in Poland by the Dutch military intelligence service, whose information came from someone in Ukraine.
A number of Polish agencies declined to share with European
investigators footage of the suspects taken by CCTV cameras while the
yacht was moored there, those investigators said. The investigators have established that the boat and its crew were exposed to security cameras throughout their stay in the port.
https://images.wsj.net/im-909271?
While prosecutors and the border guard, two of Poland’s agencies investigating the case, appeared cooperative, officials from otherfrom-poland-962aa5f9
branches including the internal security agency ABW, failed to answer queries, obfuscated or gave contradictory information, European
officials said.
In one instance, Polish prosecutors told their European counterparts
that no explosives were found on the Andromeda, although no forensic investigation had taken place. Yet the Polish internal security service
told European investigators that the border guard officers who had
checked the crew never boarded the boat, contradicting the prosecutor’s claim.
Polish prosecutors first said the Andromeda arrived in the port of
Kołobrzeg around 4 p.m. on Sept. 19 and then left around 12 hours later.
But investigators later found that the boat actually moored at 9 a.m.
after traveling overnight from Denmark.
German investigators waited at least two months before obtaining a
meeting with their Polish counterparts in mid-May last year, according
to the European officials. They left the meeting with the impression
that some Polish colleagues were unwilling or unable to cooperate.
Polish and German police otherwise cooperate closely. Officers from both countries even have police jurisdiction on each other’s territories near the border.
In September, Stanislaw Zaryn, a senior Polish official then involved in overseeing Poland’s security services, dismissed the findings that the Andromeda crew was behind the sabotage, saying the crew had no military training and were merely tourists “looking for fun.”
Around the same time, Poland’s internal security service circulated with European investigators alleged intelligence that the Andromeda had links
with Russian espionage, which they alleged was behind the attack. Some investigators said they considered this to be disinformation.
Zaryn, who left office following the election, said in a recent
interview that any Polish involvement was unlikely as Russia was
plausibly behind the sabotage.
Drew Hinshaw contributed to this article.
Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com
Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8 Appeared in the January 9, 2024, print edition as 'European Investigators Say Poland Hinders Nord Stream
Sabotage Probe'.
https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/nord-stream-probe-faces-resistance-
On Wednesday, January 10, 2024 at 11:52:28 AM UTC-3:30, andal wrote:
On Wed, 10 Jan 2024 06:29:03 -0800 (PST), Basia wrote:
The Wall Street Journal Nord Stream Probe Hampered by Resistance Fromwidth=700&size=1.4988290398126465&pixel_ratio=2
Poland
Investigators hope Warsaw’s new government will shed light on
gas-pipeline attack after previous administration’s reluctance to
disclose potentially crucial evidence
BERLIN—Polish officials have resisted cooperating with an
international probe into the sabotage of the Nord Stream natural-gas
pipelines and failed to disclose potentially crucial evidence,
according to European investigators working on the case.
Those Polish officials have been slow to provide information and
withheld key evidence about the alleged saboteurs’ movements on
Polish soil, investigators said. They are now hoping the new
government in Warsaw, which took office in December, will help shed
light on the attack.
European investigators have long believed the attack was launched
from Ukraine via Poland. But they say Warsaw’s failure to fully
cooperate has made it hard to establish whether the attack happened
with or without the former Polish government’s knowledge, according
to senior officials.
Some senior European officials say they are considering approaching
the office of Donald Tusk, Poland’s new prime minister, for help in
investigating the biggest act of sabotage on the European continent
since World War II.
https://images.wsj.net/im-909270?
b083c9c1-2c52-4e4f-8be6-731c1491cd9f-NORDSTREAM-_620px.jpg
The Nord Stream pipelines, connecting Russia to Germany underneath
the Baltic Sea, were blown up in September 2022. This added pressure
on Germany and others to make themselves independent from Russian
fuel supplies.
Any suggestion that Poland, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization
member, might be concealing information about an attack on an ally
could undermine trust in an alliance that is facing one of the
biggest tests since its creation. For Moscow, any behavior by Poland
hinting at an involvement in the sabotage may be seen as an
aggressive act by NATO.
Investigators haven’t offered evidence linking the Polish government
to the explosions and say that even if some Polish officials were
involved, it could have been without the knowledge of the political
leadership.
Yet they say efforts by Polish officials to hinder their
investigation have made them increasingly suspicious of Warsaw’s role
and motives.
Most Western security officials believe that a Ukrainian crew,
operating with or without sanction from Kyiv, was behind the
sabotage. Ukraine has denied any involvement. Russia said it thought
the U.S. was responsible for the attack, which the U.S. denied.
Days after taking up office, Tusk fired the heads of all the
intelligence services, including those involved in the Nord Stream
probe. European officials hope he will retain some police executives
they think might have been under political pressure not to cooperate
but might now be inclined to do so.
Polish prosecutors, who oversee the domestic investigation, said that
they were cooperating with other countries but found no evidence of
Polish involvement. The border guard and the internal security
service declined to comment.
https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/
width=700&size=1.5005861664712778&pixel_ratio=2
An investigation by Germany, Denmark and Sweden has so far found that
the pipeline was blown up by a crew of six, including deep-sea
divers, traveling on a leisure yacht called Andromeda. On its voyage,
Andromeda stopped in all three countries, as well as Poland,
according to investigators. The boat, leased in Germany via a Polish
company, contained traces of octagon, the same explosive that was
found at the underwater blast sites, they said.
After mining parts of the pipelines, the crew docked in Poland’s
Baltic port of Kołobrzeg, where they spent a full day, according to
investigators who tracked the boat by analyzing its navigation system
data, the crew’s mobile-phone communications, satellite imagery and
witnesses’ accounts.
A port official suspicious about the five men and one woman, all of
whom spoke a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian, alerted police. On
Sept. 19, Poland’s border guard checked the identification of the
crew, who produced European Union passports and were allowed to
continue their trip, sailing back up north, where they laid the rest
of the mines, investigators say.
Polish authorities didn’t share this information with European
investigators until March 2023—and they only did so after being
contacted by their German counterparts. Berlin was tipped off in
January about the yacht’s stay in Poland by the Dutch military
intelligence service, whose information came from someone in Ukraine.
A number of Polish agencies declined to share with European
investigators footage of the suspects taken by CCTV cameras while the
yacht was moored there, those investigators said. The investigators
have established that the boat and its crew were exposed to security
cameras throughout their stay in the port.
https://images.wsj.net/im-909271?
from-poland-962aa5f9 Baska, WSJ i Berlin to kontynuacja paktu M-R
While prosecutors and the border guard, two of Poland’s agencies
investigating the case, appeared cooperative, officials from other
branches including the internal security agency ABW, failed to answer
queries, obfuscated or gave contradictory information, European
officials said.
In one instance, Polish prosecutors told their European counterparts
that no explosives were found on the Andromeda, although no forensic
investigation had taken place. Yet the Polish internal security
service told European investigators that the border guard officers
who had checked the crew never boarded the boat, contradicting the
prosecutor’s claim.
Polish prosecutors first said the Andromeda arrived in the port of
Kołobrzeg around 4 p.m. on Sept. 19 and then left around 12 hours
later. But investigators later found that the boat actually moored at
9 a.m. after traveling overnight from Denmark.
German investigators waited at least two months before obtaining a
meeting with their Polish counterparts in mid-May last year,
according to the European officials. They left the meeting with the
impression that some Polish colleagues were unwilling or unable to
cooperate.
Polish and German police otherwise cooperate closely. Officers from
both countries even have police jurisdiction on each other’s
territories near the border.
In September, Stanislaw Zaryn, a senior Polish official then involved
in overseeing Poland’s security services, dismissed the findings that
the Andromeda crew was behind the sabotage, saying the crew had no
military training and were merely tourists “looking for fun.”
Around the same time, Poland’s internal security service circulated
with European investigators alleged intelligence that the Andromeda
had links with Russian espionage, which they alleged was behind the
attack. Some investigators said they considered this to be
disinformation.
Zaryn, who left office following the election, said in a recent
interview that any Polish involvement was unlikely as Russia was
plausibly behind the sabotage.
Drew Hinshaw contributed to this article.
Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.p...@wsj.com
Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8 Appeared in the January 9, 2024,
print edition as 'European Investigators Say Poland Hinders Nord
Stream Sabotage Probe'.
https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/nord-stream-probe-faces-resistance-
czyli Andal wybiela Stalina twierdzac ze pakt Ribbentrop-Molotow byl
miedzy nazistowski Niemcami i ... USA ?
| Sysop: | Keyop |
|---|---|
| Location: | Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK |
| Users: | 297 |
| Nodes: | 16 (2 / 14) |
| Uptime: | 15:32:45 |
| Calls: | 6,667 |
| Calls today: | 1 |
| Files: | 12,216 |
| Messages: | 5,336,692 |