Whether or not Russia was behind the Nord Stream blasts, little was at stake

Kremlin officials have talked up implications of the gas pipe explosions but there is no reason to expect a western military response

It may never be possible to determine definitively whether Monday's underwater explosions at the two Nord Stream gas pipelines were the work of Russian sabotage, but it is certainly the way to bet.

The incidents took place close to - but just outside - the 12-mile territorial waters of Denmark's Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, the kind of calibration that might be expected from a state actor mindful of the country's Nato membership.