MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the sabotage attacks targeting the Nord Stream pipelines were carried out by the US special services.
When asked who blew up the pipelines during interview with Tucker Carlson published on the US journalist’s website, the Russian leader replied with a laughter: "You for sure."
When the journalist replied that he was busy that day, Putin said: "You personally may have an alibi, but the CIA has no such alibi."
"You know, I won't get into details, but people always say in such cases, look for someone who is interested," the Russian president continued. "But in this case, we should not only look for someone who is interested, but also for someone who has capabilities, because there may be many people interested, but not all of them are capable of sinking to the bottom of the Baltic Sea and carrying out this explosion. These two components should be connected. Who is interested and who is capable of doing it?"
On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported "unprecedented damage" on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system. Later, Swedish seismologists said they had identified two explosions on the route of the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26, 2022. On September 28, 2022, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office opened a case concerning an act of international terrorism.
On February 8, US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article that claimed, citing anonymous sources, that US Navy divers had planted explosive devices under the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines under the cover of the BALTOPS exercise in June 2022, and that the Norwegians then activated the bombs three months later.
Later, The New York Times reported, citing American officials, that a certain "pro-Ukrainian group" that acted without the knowledge of the US authorities could have committed the sabotage on the gas pipelines.