NORD STREAM: Putin’s Advisor Says UK’s Elite Special Boat Service Behind Sabotage

IMAGE: British Royal Navy, Diving & Threat Exploitation Group (DTXG) (Source: British Royal Navy)

A high-ranking advisor to President Putin has stirred up conversation by suggesting that the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline could only have been executed with the involvement of Western special forces. Aide to the President of Russia, Nikolay Patrushev, specifically pointed a finger at the UK’s elite Special Boat Service (SBS), arguing that Ukraine simply lacked the expertise for such a complex operation. SBS is a naval special forces unit which leads the United Kingdom’s marine counter-terrorism response. For some time now, Russia has dismissed the findings of German prosecutors that implicated Ukrainian nationals, claiming the West is concealing the real story.

The explosions in 2022 not only obliterated crucial pipelines that connected Russia and Germany but also sent ripples throughout global energy markets, causing serious disruption to the German economy, drastically increasing the price of electricity in Europe, forcing tens of thousands of SME’s out of business, while transforming the Baltic Sea into a Hybrid War zone.

The Special Boat Service (SBS) commandos are elite forces with a unique skill set, trained to slip stealthily into enemy territory and execute high-stakes sabotage missions. They target critical installations like ammo depots, bridges, underwater infrastructure and communication hubs, employing various means of entry — whether it be through boats, submarines, Klepper canoes, helicopters, or daring HALO/HAHO parachute drops. Their proficiency in waterborne operations makes them particularly effective for striking coastal targets such as enemy ports and radar systems, but they are also combat divers that can undertake complex underwater covert operations from surface boats or from Submarine/MiniSubs.  Since their inception in World War II, SBS operatives have been on the front lines of clandestine operations, including sabotage, showcasing their tactical expertise and bravery even in the most recent international engagements. Interestingly, our last Nord Stream report, titled “Nord Stream Revelation: Submarines in the ‘NATO Lake,” unequivocally confirms that the Nord Stream blast sites are located in NATO’s submarine training areas.

It was Alec Shelbrooke, the Minister of State for the UK Ministry of Defence between 6 September 2022 and 26 October 2022, who took the reins of the Royal Naval Command DTXG, an elite division of the British Special Boat Service (SBS) known as the Diving & Threat Exploitation Group. Formed in early 2022, this specialised unit of mining divers emerged just months ahead of the high-profile Nord Stream attacks. Following the sabotage, a wave of resignations swept through the ranks, with Shelbrooke, British Prime Minister Liz Truss, and the head of the Clyde base all stepping down amidst the fallout.

Mortymer, a researcher who has dedicated the past three years to examining the Nord Stream sabotage, documented Alec Shelbrooke’s visit to the Clyde naval base in Scotland in early October 2022. During this visit, Shelbrooke inspected a specific submarine, HMS Ambush, which had returned to port just a week after the Nord Stream attacks. The submarine’s top was draped with an unusual tarpaulin. Mortymer points out that there is a dock for a mini-submarine and an exit for combat swimmers, while suggesting that the “disguise” visible in the image below might imply its recent deployment.

IMAGE: Alec Shelbrooke inspecting British submarine HMS Ambush, at the Clyde naval base in Scotland (Source: Mortymer)

In 2024, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service asserted that it possessed “credible information” indicating that the US and UK were directly implicated in the sabotage, a statement that both London and Washington have refuted. Despite the tireless attempts by mainstream media to promote the convoluted narrative proposed by German investigators, which implies that Ukrainians are responsible for the Nord Stream sabotage, their unwillingness to probe into NATO Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM), based in Northwood, UK, and the circumstances surrounding this terrorist act—particularly the US and UK underwater opertions during US led naval exercises BALTOPS 2022 and the German led Naval exercise Northern Coast 2002—speaks volumes…

Kommersant reports on Nord Stream…

The Baltic Sea as an Arena of Undeclared Hybrid War
(Approximate translation from Russian to English)

Nikolai Patrushev on the blowing up of Nord Stream

The flow of information hype around the unexpected activity of German investigative bodies, which identified the alleged participants in the operations to blow up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, does not subside. Journalists are contacting the Marine Collegium, asking legitimate questions: [Should we really trust the information suggesting that saboteurs responsible for these terrorist attacks in the deep sea have been located? What is unfolding behind the scenes in this investigation?] 

Public usually learns details of the operation from absurd leaks to the press.

The last [reports] unconditionally accuse a group of Ukrainian citizens who allegedly chartered a yacht on a fake Romanian passport during a cruise on the Baltic Sea. At a pier located a hundred meters from the NATO naval base in Rostock, Germany, the alleged saboteurs remained unnoticed, easily loading diving equipment, several hundred kilograms of explosives, and other necessary equipment, before calmly going out to sea. Somehow, they discovered a gas pipeline, managing not to confuse it with other pipelines and cable routes, which abound in this area. In conditions of busy shipping, they carried out repeated dives, attaching charges to the gas pipeline, and safely returned to port.

I don’t know who these leaks to the press are aimed at, but competent people have many questions. For example, who allowed Ukrainian saboteurs to operate so freely on the territory of another state? It turns out that NATO’s naval forces cannot ensure security around their bases, and the German authorities are unable to control what foreigners are doing on their territory. Or was all this activity planned, controlled and carried out with the participation of highly professional representatives of NATO intelligence services?

This is clearly a sabotage act carried out at a very professional level. Destroying a section of an underwater pipeline is a fairly complex task in itself, especially if the work needs to be as unnoticeable as possible without the use of a specially equipped vessel. In the case of Nord Stream, this task was obviously carried out by a highly qualified team of saboteurs with extensive experience working at significant depths and in the difficult hydrological conditions of the Baltic Sea.

Not every army or special service in the world has swimmers in its ranks who are capable of competently and, most importantly, covertly carrying out such an operation.

One of the intelligence agencies capable of carrying out this task is the famous British Special Boat Service.

[The British Special Boat Service] is one of the oldest naval sabotage units, which made a name for itself during World War II. British saboteurs became famous for their ability to carry out attacks using the simplest means, such as canoes and kayaks, which is why the service was called a boat service. And after the war, its fighters first-hand learned from their former enemies – the Germans and especially the Italians from the 10th MAS flotilla, whose veterans, I remind you, are not unreasonably suspected of involvement in the explosion of the Soviet battleship Novorossiysk. There is a known fact of an attempt at sabotage in Portsmouth, England, against the cruiser Ordzhonikidze, on board which was the head of the USSR N. S. Khrushchev.

By the way, they now prefer not to remember that literally on the eve of the Nord Stream explosion, NATO naval exercises were being conducted in this area of the Baltic. It should also be noted that the arrested Ukrainians themselves stated that the investigation being conducted against them is aimed at placing the blame on Ukraine and covering up the real organisers and participants of the terrorist attack, who are interested in increasing tension in the Baltic. An analysis of the situation in the region confirms their words.

It is known that the sabotage on the Nord Streams became only a prologue to a new and unprecedented in modern history spiral of tension in the Baltic direction. A series of strange incidents with underwater cables and incidents with Russian ships indicate that the West has seriously decided to raise the stakes, making the Baltic Sea an arena for an undeclared hybrid war.

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Source: https://21stcenturywire.com/2025/09/09/nord-stream-putins-advisor-says-uks-elite-special-boat-service-behind-sabotage/