On Sept 26, 2022, before the nature of what had happened was widely known, accounts began tweeting a video from ABC News. The video, published on February 7, contained a clip of US President Biden promising to stop Nord Stream 2. Biden kept his promise less than a month later, on February 23, when Nord Stream 2 was sanctioned with the cooperation of the German state.
Online discussion promoted the unsupported idea that the US was behind the Nord Stream explosions, centered around two tweets. Former Polish Defense Minister Radek Sikorski retweeted one–a February 2022 video of U.S. President Biden promising to stop Nord Stream 2–and authored the other, a cryptic thank you to the U.S.
Russian government officials framed Sikorski’s tweet as evidence of US involvement. By the time Sikorski deleted the tweets, Russian state-controlled media, Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state-affiliated accounts, hyperpartisan outlets, and conspiracy websites had already engaged or re-published his short post.
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<img src="/icons/map-pin_gray.svg" alt="/icons/map-pin_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Data points
Hoaxlines counted 39 Russian, 7 Iranian, and 2 Chinese state-affiliated accounts interacting with Sikorski’s tweet. Many tweets and articles promoted the idea that the US was behind the attack. Hoaxlines found links to the tweet in over 170 articles.
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Some of the first websites to embed or link to the tweet were Spanish RT, the Spanish-language version of the outlet formerly known as Russia Today; the Daily Caller Foundation; Strategic Culture Foundation, a [sanctioned](https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0628#:~:text=an online journal registered in Russia that is controlled by the SVR’s Directorate of Active Measures and is closely affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.) website overseen by [Russian intelligence](https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0628#:~:text=an online journal registered in Russia that is controlled by the SVR’s Directorate of Active Measures and is closely affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.); The Post Millennial, a hyper-partisan news site; and The Ron Paul Institute, which ran a piece titled “The Americans Did It.”
Moon of Alabama, a pro-Kremlin site popular with conspiracy and extremist groups, also published a piece. Hoaxlines recently documented a case where this outlet published content that cast doubt on the claims of Ukrainian rape victims in June 2022. The rape-dismissive content appeared on many websites now promoting the US-Nord-Stream attack story.
Twitter influencers and viral tweets →
tags: NordStream