Ukraine crisis: Russian gas pipelines leaking, sabotage suspected [Video]

European countries rushed to probe unexplained leaks in two Russian gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea near Sweden and Denmark, at the heart of an energy crisis since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sweden’s Maritime Authority issued a warning about two leaks in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, the day after a leak on the nearby Nord Stream 2 pipeline, restricting shipping and impose a small no fly zone by Denmark.

The country’s armed forces released a video showing bubbles boiling up to the surface of the sea, revealing it to be a major gas leak disturbing the surface of about 1 km (0.6 mile) in diameter, the armed forces said.

Russia, which built the gas pipeline network, said the possibility of sabotage could not be ruled out.

The gas pipelines leak on the Nord Stream pipelines that Russia with European partners spent billions of dollars building, comes close on the occasion of Dmitry Medvedev, a former president, who reiterated that Russia had the right to defend itself with nuclear weapons if it is pushed beyond its limits and that this is “certainly not a bluff”.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan is struggling to accommodate tens of thousands of Russians who have fled their homeland since Moscow announced a military mobilization recruiting the youth last week, officials say, but the Almaty government said it has no plans to close its border.

Snowden granted Russian citizenship

Another blow to the West is that Putin has granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, nine years after he exposed the scale of secret surveillance operations by the National Security Agency.