The Septemeber Minerva tracks are from two weeks before the explosion (it left the area Sep 13th and the explosions were early morning on the 26th) that timing seems to implicate rather than exonerate..
> Possibly the Russians had a tip-off or spies informing that the pipes were mined.
The Minerva isn't a Russian ship, it's a Greek oil tanker.. if the Russians had a tip about the pipelines being mined, surely they would investigate it themselves or with a ship that's equipped to examine the sea floor instead of a tanker with no such capabilities?
Those tracks are obviously just drifting or perhaps looking for something. I don't think the Russians mislaid their own pipeline. Maybe communications lines? Or smuggling? Looking for lost treasure?
In any case the point stands, it just makes no sense for the Russians to do this, and this presentation is in no way any kind of evidence in support of that theory IMHO.
The Minerva tracks are from September, and to me look like they are scanning for something, rather than laying anything in a specific location. Possibly the Russians had a tip-off or spies informing that the pipes were mined.
The story might actually be partly true, except it was the US who feared a pipe inspection, and so detonated the evidence.