[FlamesAddiction]

With the Nord Stream pipelines, I just try to think about who benefits the most from them, and who is benefits more from its destruction.

Germany - Benefits from having it, and does not benefit from having it destroyed.

Russia - Benefits from having it, does not benefit from having it destroyed, at least not in the long term.

Poland - Does not benefit from the pipeline and benefits from having it destroyed. They even said before that the Nord Stream threatens their security. The pipelines that run through their territory become more valuable and gives them more power in the region.

Ukraine - Similar to Poland, but at this point, I think they would take it or leave it.

Baltic States - Similar to Poland, but they have less to gain from its destruction.

The U.S.A. - I don't think they care about it that much and see it as a European affair. They probably don't like it because it is a wedge issue in NATO, but I don't think they lose sleep over it either.

Germany has been flakey regarding their dependence on Russian gas and I think it has some of their neighbours concerned about their resolve if the war drags on over the winter or multiple winters. They already broke sanctions once for Nord Stream. I suppose this could be a reason Russia would damage the line as it might make Germany want to break the sanctions again to fix it.

Russia could have done it as a scare tactic or scorched earth kind of play. If they were going to do a false flag like this though, it would have been easier and likely more effective to damage the pipeline that goes through Poland and blame it on a NATO or Ukrainian attack. It would make the Nord Stream line more valuable and also take away power from Poland. There would be no need for clandestine operations in, or so close, to NATO territory as they could have damaged it on their own territory and attributed to the other sabotage incidents they have experienced.

The idea that Russia is trying to show it can sabotage NATO infrastructure seems a little far fetched. We already know they can. They have subs all over the place that can't easily be tracked. They could have sabotaged a cable or something else to make the same point, and not something that they are personally invested in.