NEW YORK, September 26. /TASS/. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was aware of the Biden administration’s plans to sabotage the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in the event of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, US Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said, citing CIA sources.

"The German leader was considered then - and now - by some members of the CIA team to be fully aware of the secret planning underway to destroy the pipelines," Hersh wrote in a new article published on the Substack platform. He explained that this was about German chancellor’s visit to Washington on February 7, 2022, when Biden in his speech threatened to "bring an end to" the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline should Russia launch its special military operation in Ukraine.

On February 8, Hersh published an article claiming, citing anonymous sources, that US Navy divers had planted explosive devices under the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines under the cover of the BALTOPS naval exercise in June 2022, and that the Norwegians then activated the bombs three months later. According to the journalist, the decision to conduct the operation was made by US President Joe Biden personally, following nine months of discussions with White House national security advisers.

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, 2022, Swedish seismologists registered two explosions on the pipeline routes. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office launched a criminal case in connection with the incident based on charges of international terrorism.