November 8, 2011 should be a big day for gas supplies in Europe.

A lot of prominent politicians came together in Lubmin in Western Pomerania when Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev turned on the gas tap for the first of two lines of the Nord Stream pipeline.

At least symbolically.

They smiled at each other.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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Matthias Wysuwa

Political correspondent for northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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Standing around them were the Prime Ministers of France and the Netherlands, François Fillon and Mark Rutte, EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, Erwin Sellering, the Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and, of course, Gerhard Schröder.

He had launched the project with Vladimir Putin while he was Chancellor.

Merkel described Nord Stream as a sign "that we are counting on secure and resilient cooperation with Russia in the future".

Eleven years later, the tubes of Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 are also lying on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

And since Monday, gas has been pouring into the sea from leaks in both pipelines.

The shattered end of a “resilient cooperation”.

A pressure drop in one of the two strands of Nord Stream 2 was initially registered on Monday morning.

Then in the evening on both strands of the first Nord Stream pipeline.

Although Nord Stream 2 had never been put into operation and Russia has not been supplying anything through Nord Stream 1 for several weeks, they were filled with gas.

Danish fighter planes took to the air.

Their images showed a turbulent Baltic Sea where the gas flows to the surface.

The three leaks are near the Danish island of Bornholm.

Swedish seismologists reported that several measuring stations recorded two explosions in the region on Monday, one in the morning and one in the evening.

Since then there has been a lot of excitement.

Much points to sabotage.

But who was it - and what does that mean for the safety of the rest of the energy infrastructure in the Baltic Sea?

54 billion cubic meters of gas annually

The danger has long been known.

Only a few days ago, the inspector of the German Navy, Flotilla Admiral Jan Kaack, drew attention to this again.

In an interview he warned: “On the bottom of the Baltic Sea, but also in the Atlantic, there is some critical infrastructure such as pipelines or undersea cables for IT.

They can quickly switch off the light in countries like Estonia, and there are threats to global communication structures that you have to pay particular attention to.” Without reference to the event that has now occurred on the two Nord Stream pipelines, Kaack said at the beginning of the week to the newspaper “Die Welt “: “There is a reason when Russian sub- or surface units are in the area of ​​​​these cables for a long time.”

Just a few months ago, the destruction of one or both Nord Stream 1 pipes would have meant a severe shock to the energy supply of Germany and several neighboring countries.

Around 54 billion cubic meters of gas could be pumped through the tubes every year.

The destruction of the pipelines, whether by accident or attack, would have meant an abrupt failure of a large part of the energy supplies for Germany, but also for Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands - with serious consequences for the economy and private households.

But since no more gas was arriving in Lubmin anyway, there was at least no risk of this shock.