The US newspaper, The Politico, described the Baltic pipeline bombings as brinkmanship and signaling a potential new front in the Ukraine war.
The newspaper said - in a report - that if energy and undersea communications infrastructure became a target for Russia now, the Western navies would have to take quick action, as it seems that the energy crisis in Europe is entering a new and dangerous stage.
long-term repercussions
She added that if suspicions that Russia was behind the explosions are confirmed, the security repercussions on the continent will be far-reaching, and the idea that the EU's undersea energy and communications infrastructure is now a Russian target will force European armies to prepare for a new, somewhat unexpected front. A major war in Ukraine could put these armies in direct confrontation with the Russian Navy.
She noted that Britain had previously expressed concerns that Russian submarines in the Atlantic Ocean and other northern waters might be looking to strike undersea cables important to the Internet, saying that this week's explosions make those fears look realistic and revive memories of the height of the Cold War, when NATO fleets played North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Soviets - and especially their submarines - high stakes cat-and-mouse games in the Baltic Sea.
She said that last July, the British Royal Navy issued an unusually specific statement that it was running behind Russian submarines down the Norwegian coast.
European leaders have identified the party involved
Although investigations are still underway in Denmark and Sweden, it appears that some European leaders have already made up their minds on who to blame, with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki alluding to Russia's involvement, saying, "We don't know all the details of what happened, but we clearly see it as an act of sabotage." linked to the next step to escalate the situation in Ukraine."
Ukraine was less conservative. An adviser to the Ukrainian president, Mikhailo Podolak, described the events as "a terrorist attack planned by Russia and an act of aggression towards the European Union."
The main question, Politico said, is why the Russians are sabotaging their own pipelines, vital arteries that - until very recently - pumped their lucrative gas exports to Europe, to answer that the Kremlin's covert aggressive actions designed to intimidate and destabilize are numerous, such as the poisoning of Salisbury in the kingdom. The United States in 2018, the explosion of the Czech armory 2014, and the series of bombings at arms depots in Bulgaria, the most recent of which was last July.