Devil's advocate: Russia could safely assume that many westerners would blame the US for obvious reasons. Enthusiasm for the war has deflated in NATO countries as a result of the attack because they assume the US did it, such as the German bundestag voting against sending more weapons to the Ukraine. There has been a notable shift in the coverage of the war, as if the west is now resigned to letting Russia win. There was no reason for regime media to show Putin's speech nor write headlines declaring that Russia had annexed parts of the Ukraine, unless the media is pivoting and prepared to let Russia have it. The destruction of NS also shores up the Russian alliance with China as Beijing knows they will be able to rely on Russia for cheap gas.
The Baltic is too far away from China and Germany doesn't have the capability. The only powers that could hit a pipeline 70m underwater in the Baltic without getting caught is the US, Russia and maybe—emphasis on the maybe—the UK.
I'll follow that up by going 64 words previous in your own article
As far as I’m concerned, a person’s willingness to believe Russia might have bombed their own pipelines is a proxy for an IQ test.
Devil's advocate: Russia could safely assume that many westerners would blame the US for obvious reasons. Enthusiasm for the war has deflated in NATO countries as a result of the attack because they assume the US did it, such as the German bundestag voting against sending more weapons to the Ukraine. There has been a notable shift in the coverage of the war, as if the west is now resigned to letting Russia win. There was no reason for regime media to show Putin's speech nor write headlines declaring that Russia had annexed parts of the Ukraine, unless the media is pivoting and prepared to let Russia have it. The destruction of NS also shores up the Russian alliance with China as Beijing knows they will be able to rely on Russia for cheap gas.
The Baltic is too far away from China and Germany doesn't have the capability. The only powers that could hit a pipeline 70m underwater in the Baltic without getting caught is the US, Russia and maybe—emphasis on the maybe—the UK.