When Reagan destroyed the Russian gas pipeline in 1982

In the late 1970s, the Cold War entered a new ice age when the then Soviet Union began upgrading its SS-20 missiles aimed at Western Europe. To restore the “balance of fear,” the US has deployed cruise missiles in Western Europe and invested billions in new weapons programs.

With the planned SDI missile defense system in space, US President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) wanted to win the arms race and destroy the “Evil Empire”.

Spies got manipulated software

Several hundred Soviet spies roamed the West to steal modern technology. The CIA supplied some of them with rigged assembly line management software to destroy the Axis of Evil’s main source of income.

To avoid suspicion, the software initially worked flawlessly. Only after some time, the Trojan hidden in the source code woke up and changed the settings of pumps, turbines and valves. In 1982, one of the largest gas pipelines in the USSR exploded. The KGB spoke of a technical malfunction, others of sabotage.

The mystery lasts four years

The mathematician David Grimes analyzed
of the most popular conspiracy theories and calculated a 95 percent chance that the secret would be solved after an average of four years. Because there are too many accomplices. Some start talking because they feel they have been treated unfairly, while others want to be wiped out on their deathbed.

In the case of the Trans-Siberian Pipeline, it was Thomas S. Reid (aged 88)
Special Advisor to the Reagan National Security Council, who
a quarter of a century revealed the secret.

Are you bono?

Today we are wondering who is responsible for the sabotage of Nord Stream 1 and 2. The Colombo Television Commissioner will follow the “Cui bono?” further – “In whose favor?” – and subpoena the United States on the basis of irrefutable evidence, especially since they have never made a secret of the fact that they will prevent Nord Stream.

However, it doesn’t make much sense if the “experts” are now hostile to each other, because (at this point) only one thing is clear: no one else knows anything. According to David Grimes, one day we will know.

Claude Cueny (66) is a writer based in Basel. He writes to Blick every second Friday. His thriller Dirty Talk was recently released.