The mystery of the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines continues to generate controversy months after the fact. Last week the Russians asked the United Nations Security Council to investigate the blasts as an act of war. Yesterday the council held a vote and declined to conduct such an investigation. The only members voting in favor of the resolution were China, Brazil, and, of course, Russia. Everyone else either abstained or voted no. Some of the members voting against the resolution actually offered a fairly good reason. There is already an investigation underway and it would be premature to jump into the middle of it before we know the results. But this definitely handed some additional ammunition to Moscow which continues to claim that it had nothing to do with it. (Associated Press)

The U.N. Security Council on Monday declined a Russian request to investigate the blasts on the pipelines that move natural gas from Russia to Europe under the Baltic Sea.

Russia, China and Brazil voted in favor of the Russian request, but other Security Council members abstained or said another investigation was unnecessary.

For a resolution to be adopted by the U.N. Security Council, it needs a minimum of nine “yes” votes in the 15-member council, and no veto by one of the permanent members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

In fairness to the UN, it’s unclear what more they could do that isn’t already being done by Sweden, Denmark and Germany. But the U.S. deputy ambassador’s claim that the investigation has been proceeding “in a comprehensive, transparent and impartial manner” was a bit questionable. We have no way of knowing how “comprehensive” the investigation has been because they have thus far released almost no information to the public. That’s hardly “transparent.”

The only thing we know for sure is that they managed to find an “object” next to one of the pipelines and have invited the Russians to take part in finding out what it is. The Dutch think it might be a nautical smoke canister while the Russians suspect it could be part of another explosive device.

New York Magazine previously offered a roundup of the possible suspects without any hard evidence being offered. One of the more curious theories involved (take a deep breath) six people using a German-owned yacht registered to a Polish company owned by Ukrainians. Well, that all sounds perfectly viable, right? (Sarcasm)

That report also repeats the initial “false flag” allegations made by both the White House and Ukraine shortly after the blast, as well as the New York Times story from March 7 claiming that it was the Ukrainians, but not the Ukrainian government. (Perish the thought!) They had to have been some other Ukrainians with no government or military connections who were still somehow able to pull off a massive underwater demolition exercise with nobody noticing. They may also have a bridge in Minsk to sell you if you’re in the market.

The idea that Russia blew up its own pipeline still sounds ludicrous. But thinking that Biden would have pulled this stunt with nobody pumping the brakes also sounds like a stretch. Ukraine had the most to gain because the pipelines rerouted fuel from pipelines that run through their territory and make them money and the attack would also damage the Russians. But the scheme sounds like a lot to ask from a group of amateurs. So who knows? I’m growing doubtful that we’ll ever know for sure.