STOCKHOLM, February 14. /TASS/. Director of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, professor at Lund University Jan Oberg branded the acts of sabotage at the Nord Stream pipelines as an act of the US’ economic war against its European allies in an interview with Xinhua published on Tuesday.
"The US, with very important Norwegian assistance, committed the crime against a friendly, allied country, Germany, and other European countries," he said, commenting on an article by US journalist Seymour Hersh. "The blowing-up of Nord Stream by the US has already caused enormous, accumulating harm to European citizens' economy," he added.
Western countries rejected diplomacy in favor of "weapons, threats, secret operations and media manipulation." "Militarism has become the religion that keeps the declining West together," the expert said. This is why "the Western mainstream media won't give Hersh's sensational analysis the attention it deserves," he explained.
On February 8, Hersh wrote in an article, citing 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 Norwegians activated the bombs three months later. According to the journalist, the decision to conduct the operation was made by US President Joe Biden. White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a comment to TASS that Hersh’s account was utterly false and complete fiction.