BERLIN, February 15. /TASS/. Veteran US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said Norway was particularly interested in successfully pulling off the now-infamous sabotage plot against the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines.
"Norway was interested in income growth, and hence in increasing the volume of its energy supplies to the EU, to the same Germany," the Berliner Zeitung quoted Hersh as saying.
"And what do we see after the mission (sabotage)? Norway has made it. Its exports (energy) grew against the backdrop of significant hostility towards Russia," the journalist 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.