Is a U.S.-made Diving Boot Clue to the Nord Stream Whodunnit?

A black and orange boot similar to the one used by U.S. Navy divers, found by The Grayzone investigators near one of the blast sites, could help point direction in the side of Nord Stream saboteurs.

On September 26, 2022, four explosions rocked the $23 billion Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that carried natural gas from Russia to Europe. Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 each consist of two pipes, of which three of them were ruptured. One line of Nord Stream 2 remains intact.

On May 24, Investigators spotted a boot that closely resembles a model used by U.S. Navy and commercial divers, approximately 5m from the small leak site in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Sweden.

Ukraine’s U.S.-trained Navy divers have also been spotted using the same model, or one which is virtually identical.

Sweden, Denmark and Germany have conducted investigations, but with the exception of an early Swedish assessment that the explosions were probably caused by “gross sabotage,” their findings have yet to publicized.

Nord Stream 2 AG company reportedly discovered the boot in February and reported it to the Swedish investigators, who have not collected it or divulged its existence up until now.

A source in contact with The Grayzone spoke with a diver on the Swedish Navy’s HMS Belos, a submarine rescue and diving vessel that scoured the leak sites in October 2022. The diver denied that the boot had been worn by any of their divers and reportedly said it is possible that its wearer might not have noticed its absence.

It is unknown for how long the boot had been exposed on the seafloor.

Swedish engineer Erik Andersson, the organizer of the expedition, believes it is possible the boot was previously covered by sediment or mud which may have been moved by underwater currents or the blasts. Otherwise, it is unclear how investigators could have missed it.

“This looks like a Thor overboot,” Neil Tordoff, the military and commercial sales director at Northern Diver, stated after viewing a photo of the boot sent by The Grayzone. “I can’t be 100% sure.”

The Thor diver overboot is produced by Northern Diver, a British company whose products are produced in China.

Tordoff said Northern Diver no longer manufactures this boot due to disruptions in production brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“If it’s the Thor over boot, this was used and is still used in the oil and gas industry for divers. It’s part of a dry-diving suit that would normally be used in contaminated water to keep the diver safe,” Tordoff explained.

“This item is used worldwide,” he added.

The owner of the boot may have been a diver who lost it while planting the bombs. Alternatively, the boot may belong to a diver ordered back to the crime scene to retrieve the unexploded charge meant for the intact line of Nord Stream 2 – a theory proposed by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Or perhaps it belonged to a commercial diver.

Nord Stream 2 AG company denied that there had ever been any diving for construction or pipe maintenance in the area.

In February, Hersh cited a “a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning” of a covert operation conducted by the CIA in partnership with Norway, to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines.