MOSCOW, September 29. /TASS/. Putting the Nord Stream and Nord - 2 gas pipelines out of operation is beneficial to the United States, as it will allow Washington to increase supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday.

"There was a clear winner here - that is Washington. The shutdown of gas pipelines, to briefly summarize what has been said by US officials over the past few years, will allow the US to increase LNG supplies to the EU," she said.

Zakharova pointed at "slogans, appeals and talking points that have been spread by both parties - by both the Republicans and the Democrats,"and also "implemented by American officials over the past years."

"After all, Mr. Blinken (US Secretary of State Antony Blinken - TASS), you never concealed that the main goal is to cut Europe off from Russian energy resources, and now you don't know who could profit from it. This is what you are after," she added.

Four Nord Stream gas pipeline leaks have been uncovered, with the most recent one being pinpointed by Sweden’s coast guard. Earlier, the Nord Stream AG company reported that three threads of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 offshore gas pipelines had suffered unprecedented damage on Monday. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Moscow was "deeply concerned about the news" and did not rule out that the pipelines’ operation could have been disrupted by an act of sabotage. Swedish seismologists later reported that two explosions had been recorded along the Nord Stream pipelines on Monday. Head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, branded the incident as "sabotage," stressing that this sort of "deliberate disruption would result in the strongest possible response.".