Russian foreign ministry asks for answers from the US over ‘blowing up’ Nord Stream

Moscow: The Russian foreign ministry has sought for answers from the United States over its alleged role in exploding the undersea Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in September last year.

A report published on Wednesday said that the US was involved in the Nord Stream gas pipelines explosions.

Russia asks US’ comments on ‘facts’

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on the White House to comment on the “facts” that had been presented in the report published by US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh on his blog.

“The White House must now comment on all these facts,” Zakharova said in a post on her Telegram page and also summarised Hersh’s main claims related to the alleged US involvement.

Also Read: If Russia did not sabotage Nord Stream, who did?

In the report, the journalist accused the US military of involvement in the gas pipelines blasts and alleged President Joe Biden’s consent to the operation.

What does Seymour Hersh’s report say?

In his report, Hersh quoted an unnamed source with “direct knowledge of the operational planning”, saying how “skilled deep-water divers” from the US Navy planted C-4 explosives during a training exercise in June last year, and then detonated the payload remotely three months later.

Hersh further said that Biden saw the pipelines as “a vehicle for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin to weaponise natural gas for his political and territorial ambitions.”

‘Utterly false and complete fiction’

The White House dismissed Hersh’s blog post. Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said: “This is utterly false and complete fiction.”

A US Department of State spokesperson said the same as what Watson told.

Also Read: Nord Stream leaks: Understanding the risks for undersea cables, pipes

A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spokesperson also called the report “completely and utterly false”.

Russia, without furnishing any evidence, has been persistently accusing the NATO nations to be behind the explosions affecting the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines – multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects that carried Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

Meanwhile, investigators from Sweden and Denmark have said the explosions were a result of sabotage, but have not said who they believed was responsible.

Russia said that the countries “have something to hide” and accused them of intentionally blocking Moscow from the investigation.

Don’t Miss: Accident or sabotage? Why are the Russia-Europe Nord Stream pipelines leaking?

Who is Seymour Hersh?

Hersh is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist. He has exposed the 1969 massacre of Vietnamese civilians by American forces and also broke the story of US troops brutalising Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib after the US invasion in 2003.

With inputs from agencies

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.