MOSCOW, 8 Feb. Washington must respond to the investigation into the bombing of Nord Stream by American divers, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote in her Telegram channel.
«We have repeatedly voiced Russia's position on the involvement of the United States and NATO, noting that they did not hide it, bragging to the whole world about their intention to destroy the civilian infrastructure through which Europe received Russian energy resources,» the diplomat emphasized.
According to her, Western countries prevented Moscow's participation in the investigation into the circumstances of the incident.
«We also regularly noted the reluctance of Denmark, Germany and Sweden to conduct an open investigation and opposition to Russia's participation in it. And this despite the fact that our the country has incurred huge costs. All these facts should now be commented on in the White House,» Zakharova said.
On Wednesday, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh published an investigation into the causes of the Nord Stream bombing. He said, citing an informed source, that US Navy divers planted explosives under gas pipelines last summer, which the Norwegians activated three months later. According to him, a Norwegian Navy plane dropped a sonar buoy on September 26, which set off explosive devices.
As the journalist noted, US President Joe Biden decided to sabotage the Nord Stream after nine months of highly secret discussions within the Washington national security community. Undermining pipelines supplying cheap gas was necessary for the States, as they feared that countries like Germany «would not want to supply Ukraine with money and weapons to defeat Russia,» Hersh explained.
At the request of the author of the publication for comment, White House spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said that «this is a lie and complete fiction.» In turn, Tammy Thorpe, a representative of the Central Intelligence Agency, answered approximately in the same vein.
The journalist added that Jake Sullivan, US presidential adviser on national security, was also involved in the organization of sabotage, who created an interdepartmental group on behalf of Biden to development of the plan, and in December 2021, convened a meeting with her. The US Navy, for its part, proposed using a submarine to attack the Nord Streams, and the Air Force — bombs with a remote fuse. Early last year, according to the investigator, a CIA task force told Sullivan's inter-agency team, «We have a way to blow up the pipelines.»
Hersh confirmed the authenticity of the article, but declined to reveal the details of the work on it and the source.
At the end of September, explosions thundered on two Nord Streams at once. The operator Nord Stream AG reported that the emergency on the pipelines is unprecedented and it is impossible to estimate the repair time. Vladimir Putin called the incident an obvious terrorist attack.