BERLIN, February 15. /TASS/. US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said the United States organized their sabotage on the Nord Stream gas pipelines because Washington wanted Berlin to keep the anti-Russian sanctions in place.
"I think the reason for this decision (to sabotage the Nord Stream pipelines - TASS) was that the war for the West was not going very well, and they were afraid of the approaching winter," the Berliner Zeitung quoted Hersh as saying. "Nord Stream 2 was put on hold by Germany itself, not international sanctions, and the US was afraid Germany would lift the sanctions because of a cold winter," he added.
According to Hersh’s article published on February 8, explosives were planted under the Russian Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines by US Navy divers with assistance from Norwegian specialists under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 exercise last June. The story cited an unidentified source as saying that US President Joe Biden personally authorized the operation after nine months of discussions with administration officials in charge of security matters.
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.