The Nord Stream pipeline explosions: challenging false narratives

The claim that the Nord Stream gas pipeline was blown up by US special forces, made by the investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, is being used to reinforce false narratives about Russia’s culpability for the war in Ukraine. In this article in New Politics, I write that Hersh’s claims about the purpose of the sabotage are factually incorrect, his account of the build-up to the explosion is misleading, his explanation for US motivation is flawed, and his failure to examine Russian motivation is one-sided.