Putin called nonsense the arguments of the Western press about undermining the “Nord Streams”

Western press reports that a certain Ukrainian group was involved in undermining the Nord Streams are nonsense, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin.

“I’m sure it’s complete nonsense. An explosion of this kind, such power, at such a depth can only be carried out by specialists, and supported by the entire power of the state, which has certain technologies,” the president said.

According to him, theoretically, the United States is interested in stopping the operation of gas pipelines, which wants to supply its liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the European market, even “if it is much, 25-30% more expensive than Russian.”

On March 7, The New York Times reported on the emergence of new intelligence from the United States, which claims that the explosion on the Nord Stream pipelines was carried out by some pro-Ukrainian group. According to the newspaper’s sources among American officials, citizens of Russia and Ukraine, but not the United Kingdom and the United States, may be involved in the incident. Sources of the newspaper stressed that Washington has no evidence of involvement in the bombings of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his subordinates.

On the same day, the newspaper Die Zeit, citing the German investigation, reported that a ship had been identified, probably involved in the explosion. According to the newspaper, it was rented in Poland from a company owned by two Ukrainian citizens. The sabotage involved six people who rented a yacht with forged documents.

The Nord Stream incident occurred on the night of September 26, 2022. Pressure dropped in both pipelines. Two subsequently discovered leaks were in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Sweden, and two more were in the Danish EEZ. Initially, Germany, Sweden and Denmark agreed to conduct a joint investigation, but this idea was later abandoned. In October 2022, Sweden announced the completion of the investigation, stating “increasing suspicions of gross sabotage”, but those responsible for what happened were not named.

On February 8, American journalist Seymour Hersh published an investigation into the Nord Stream incident, in which he accused the United States and Norway of being involved in the bombing. The White House and the European Commission called this information unreliable. The Kremlin announced the unwillingness of the West to transparently investigate the Nord Stream case.

At the end of December last year, at a press conference, Putin said that those who were interested in supplying Europe with Russian gas only through the territory of Ukraine were guilty of undermining. According to him, the Russian side was able to inspect the sites of the explosions only once and there is no full-fledged investigation into this incident.