MOSCOW, October 12. /TASS/. The recent terrorist attack on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines was aimed at undermining the energy security of the entire continent, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
"No doubt, the goal behind that act of international terrorism was to undermine the energy security of the entire continent," Putin said, addressing the Russian Energy Week forum. He said the attackers' malevolent rationale was to block cheap energy supplies and deprive millions of households and industries of natural gas, electricity and other resources so that they would have to pay higher prices for them.
Putin described the attack on the Nord Streams as "a most dangerous precedent." "It shows that any vital transport, energy or utility infrastructure is now in jeopardy regardless of where it is located or who operates it or whether those are subsea pipelines or ground-based ones."
On September 27, operator Nord Stream AG reported that three lines of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 offshore gas pipelines had suffered unprecedented damage. Swedish seismologists later reported that two explosions had been recorded along the Nord Stream pipelines on the previous day. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case on charges of international terrorism.