Norway’s Foreign Ministry denies reports of country’s involvement in undermining Nord Stream

Information about Norway’s involvement in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines is “nonsense.” About this “RIA Novosti” stated Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“These accusations are nonsense,” the department said in response to a request by the agency to comment on an article by American journalist Seymour Hersh about the investigation into the explosion at Nord Stream.

A day earlier, on his website, 85-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner Hersh published an article in which, citing an informed source, he announced the involvement of the United States and Norway in undermining the Nord Streams. According to him, United States President Joe Biden decided to sabotage the gas pipelines after more than nine months of secret discussions with the national security team.

The American journalist believes that from the first days of the existence of Nord Stream 1, Washington viewed the project as a threat to Western dominance. Hersh claims that American divers planted explosives under the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines during NATO exercises in the summer of 2022. On September 26 of the same year, a Norwegian naval aircraft dropped a sonar buoy. It was he who set off the explosives, the journalist concluded.

On the same day, this material was commented on in the White House. White House National Security Council Press Officer Adrianne Watson named lies and “complete fiction” information about US involvement in the undermining.

In the Kremlin earlier today declaredthat Hersh’s article about the investigation into the Nord Stream explosion was not widely disseminated in the West, which cannot but cause surprise. According to the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, this is “very important material.” He stressed that this article should speed up the international investigation of the incident on the gas pipelines, “and we see, on the contrary, attempts to silently wrap up” this case.

The incident on the gas pipelines occurred on the night of September 26, 2022. Then pressure dropped in both pipelines, and later two leaks were discovered, which were located in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Sweden, and two more in the Danish EEZ. Initially, the three countries agreed to conduct a joint investigation, but later this idea was abandoned.

In early October, the Swedish State Security Service (SEPO) announced the completion of the investigation at Nord Stream. Investigators said they were “increasing suspicions of gross sabotage”, but they also did not name those responsible for the incident.

At the end of December, at a press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin named interested in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines. According to him, those who were interested in supplying Europe with Russian gas only through the territory of Ukraine, staged explosions on gas pipelines. Then, during his speech, the president also stressed that the Russian side was able to inspect the sites of the explosions only once. There is no full-fledged investigation into this incident, Putin said.