NEW YORK, November 1. /TASS/. US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has categorically denied Democrats' claims that he has ties with Russia, recalling that he blocked the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline.

"As you know, I killed it [the Nord Stream 2 pipeline]. They love to say that I was a friend of Russia, [that] I worked for Russia, [that] I was a Russian spy. These people are sick. The biggest job Russia has ever had is Nordstream 2. This is the biggest pipeline in the world. It goes from Russia to Germany and all over Europe. I killed it. Nobody would kill it, but me, I stopped it. The thing was half built," he said during a live interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson in the city of Glendale (Arizona).

The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline began in 2018, but was suspended a year and a half later. In late 2019, the Trump administration announced sanctions against companies involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream pipelines. However, with the help of Russian ships, both strings of the pipeline were completed by December 2021. However, due to the delayed certification from the German side, the supply never started. In February 2022, after Russia recognized the sovereignty of the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that he had ordered to stop the certification of Nord Stream-2. As a result, the pipeline was never put into operation.