I'm not buying this NatGas conspiracy theory, but did find it amusing in a Boris & Natasha way

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Strictly for amusement.

Rocky & Bullwinkle vs Boris & Natasha?

Did the United States Booby-Trap a Vital Soviet Gas Pipeline?

Is it a tale too far-fetched to be true, or too bizarre not to be? Allegedly, a disgruntled KBG agent code-named “Farewell” gave away Soviet secrets to the French, who then promptly shared them with the US — giving the American government a veritable shopping list of the US technology most coveted by the Soviets.

Enter Gus Weiss, an eccentric and brilliant insider in the US intelligence community. According to Alex French at Wired, Weiss devised the perfect plan to thwart the Russians: sell them what they want, but first make sure that technology is programmed to self-destruct, taking down a natural gas pipeline vital to the cash-strapped Russians.  ...

 

... That alternative plan is at the core of the legend of Gus Weiss. The best-known version of the tale goes like this: High up on the Soviet tech shopping list was software to regulate the pressure gauges and valves for the critical Siberian gas pipeline. According to Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes, the Soviets sought the software on the open market. American export controls prohibited its sale from the US. However, a small industrial software company located in Calgary called Cov-Can produced what the Soviets wanted. As Weiner writes, “The Soviets sent a Line X officer to steal the software. The CIA and the Canadians conspired to let them have it.”

The faulty software “weaved” its way through Soviet quality control. The pipeline software ran swimmingly for months, but then pressure in the pipeline gradually mounted. And one day—the date remains unclear, though most put it in June 1982—the software went haywire, the pressure soaring out of control.

The pipeline ruptured, igniting a blast in the wilds of Siberia so massive that, according to Thomas C. Reed’s At the Abyss, “at the White House, we received warning from our infrared satellites of some bizarre event out in the middle of Soviet nowhere. NORAD feared a missile liftoff from a place where no rockets were known to be based. Or perhaps it was the detonation of a nuclear device. The Air Force chief of intelligence rated it at three kilotons.”

The pipeline explosion is said to have cost Moscow tens millions of dollars it could ill-afford to waste.

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

At this point, the whole tale loses credibility....

”Allegedly, a disgruntled KBG agent code-named “Farewell” gave away Soviet secrets to the French, who then promptly shared them with the US”

The French would NEVER willingly share information with the US!

[Guillaume Albasini + 851]

The Farewell affair happened in the Eighties.

French president Mitterand informed président Reagan about Farewell in a private meeting at the Ottawa summit on 19 July 1981

The Fareweel affair is well known in France and there was even a movie about it.

However Reed's allegations about the 1982 pipeline explosion have been challenged. Pipeline experts believe that poor construction under the Soviet Era was a more probable explanation for the nat-gas pipeline explosion. At that time

"In the Eighties, Soviet Union simply didn't practice digital control of its pipeline system. Most of the control was manual, and whatever automation  was used utilized the analog control systems most of which worked through pneumatics."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_Dossier

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Abyss

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_(2009_film)

 

 

 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

Analog control systems were effective for years. Digital systems may be more efficient and quicker, but properly utilized analog systems are perfectly acceptable. To blame a pipeline explosion on the difference between analog and digital control systems is somewhat of a stretch.

The SR71 spyplane, which still holds several records, was originally built with analog gauges.