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Sabotage of Nord Stream has all signs of state terrorism — Hungarian foreign minister

"If a terrorist act is carried out using state resources and with state support, then it is state terrorism," Peter Szijjarto noted
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto Vladislav Nogai/TASS
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto
© Vladislav Nogai/TASS

BUDAPEST, August 26. /TASS/. The sabotage of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in the fall of 2022 shows all the characteristics of state terrorism, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said while commenting on the detention of a Ukrainian citizen in Italy on suspicion of direct involvement in the explosion of the gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.

"Based on the available information, it appears highly likely that this is a case of state terrorism. If a terrorist act is carried out using state resources and with state support, then it is state terrorism. This case resembles state terrorism," the foreign minister said on YouTube.

Last week, a 49-year-old Ukrainian man, Sergey Kusnetsov, was arrested in Italy on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued in Germany. He is suspected of complicity in organizing the attack on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in September 2022. German prosecutors claimed that he was part of a group that planted explosives on the gas pipelines near Bornholm as they consider him to be one of the coordinators of the attack. Some reports indicate that Kuznetsov worked for Ukrainian intelligence until 2015.

On September 26, 2022, three strings of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipelines sustained severe damage. The latter had not yet been put into operation. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Moscow is certain that the Nord Stream sabotage was carried out with US support. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has opened an investigation into an act of international terrorism.