NEW YORK, February 10. /TASS/. US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who earlier published a report about US role in blasts that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines last year, does not rule out the possibility of visiting Russia and addressing the lower chamber of the Russian parliament.
"That's not off the table but it's not going to happen in the short run," Hersh told TASS, commenting on Russian media reports about his possible invitation to the State Duma.
He added that relations between the two countries remain strained and, therefore, not conductive to foreign trips in such a "delicate time."
However, the journalist said he had turned down several invitations to speak before the US Congress in the past few years, because he prefers to stay out of politics.
In his words, he received several calls from the US Congress after publishing his article about the Nord Stream.
"I've already had senators call me up and I say to them, I can't help you it’s your problem, not mine," Hersh said.
According to the article published on Wednesday, explosives were planted under the Russian Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines by US Navy divers under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 exercise last June. The story cited an unidentified source with direct knowledge of the operational planning as saying that US President Joe Biden personally authorized the operation. Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council at the White House told TASS, replying to the news agency’s question, that the Hersh story was totally false and complete fiction.
On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported unprecedented damage that occurred the day before on three strings of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipelines. On September 26, Swedish seismologists registered two explosions on the pipeline routes. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office launched a criminal case based on charges of international terrorism.