MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says US officials essentially acknowledge in their statements that the explosions at the Nord Stream pipelines were US handiwork, and they talk about it with pleasure, Lavrov said in an interview that was published on Sunday.

He made the remarks in an interview for an information lesson on the topic of "Russia and the World."

"US officials essentially acknowledge that the explosions that hit the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines were their handiwork. They even take delight now in talking about this," Lavrov said.

According to Lavrov, the US decided that Russia and Germany cooperated "too well" over the past 20-30 years, establishing a powerful alliance based on Russian resources and German technology.

"That began to threaten the monopoly position of many American corporations. Therefore, it was necessary to somehow ruin it, and do it literally," the minister said.

"There is an aspect here that’s related to the fact that friendship between countries, national reconciliation between them, as it happened between Russians and Germans, has become an eye sore for those who don’t want anyone to appear somewhere on this planet, who will compete with the main hegemon, which the US has declared itself to be," Lavrov added.

US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said on January 27 that the US was content that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline won’t become operational.

The Nord Stream AG company reported on September 27 that three threads of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 offshore gas pipelines had suffered unprecedented damage the day before. Swedish seismologists later reported that two explosions had been recorded along the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26. The Swedish Prosecutor’s Office said on November 18 that the explosions were an act of sabotage. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office started an investigation into the case as an attack of international terrorists.