NATO mine destroyer found at Nord Stream 1: Gazprom

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A NATO mine destroyer was discovered around the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline in November 2015, a spokesperson for the pipeline's operator, Sergei Kupriyanov, Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Monday.

Spokesperson Sergei Kupriyanov recalled how NATO claimed at the time that the device was lost during exercises conducted in the region. He also highlighted how the device was pulled out by the Swedish armed forces, who then defused it.

"Today, it is necessary to recall the events on the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which have already been recorded earlier. This case is well known. On November 6, 2015, during a scheduled visual inspection of the Nord Stream gas pipeline (1), the NATO underwater mine destroyer "Sea Fox" was discovered. He was lying in the space between the gas pipelines, clearly at one of the threads," he said on the air of the Rossiya 24 TV channel according to Interfax.

"Then the explosive device was removed and neutralized by the Swedish armed forces. The transportation of gas, which was stopped due to an emergency, was resumed. NATO announced that an underwater fuse was lost during the exercises. This is such a NATO exercise. When a military explosive device is located exactly under our gas pipeline," Kupriyanov added.

The Nord Stream gas pipelines were damaged by two explosions, according to Danish officials during a NATO conference, each with the force of around 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of TNT, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing persons familiar with the case.

Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines were struck in Danish waters near the island of Bornholm. The Swedish and Danish governments announced the discovery of two gas leaks caused by submarine explosions, with the general agreement being that the occurrence was the result of sabotage.

Previous reports said Flightradar24 data showed that US military helicopters habitually and on numerous occasions circled for hours over the site of the Nord Stream pipelines incident near Bornholm Island earlier in September.

Following the incident, the German newspaper Tagesspiegel claimed that Berlin is convinced that the loss of pressure in the three natural gas pipelines between Russia and Germany was not a coincidence and suspects a "targeted attack".

These revelations come after German newspaper Der Siegel reported that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) warned the German government there would be attacks on Nord Stream gas pipelines weeks ahead of any incident being reported around the pipelines.

Meanwhile, Gazprom has been subjected to various disputes in recent days after the Russian firm decided to end its activities in Switzerland and temporarily suspend its gas supplies to Italy.

Gazprom suspended Saturday gas deliveries to Italy due to a transport problem in Austria.

"The reason is related to the regulatory changes that took place in Austria at the end of September," Gazprom explained.

In light of the whole debacle, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined two days ago that the scenario surrounding Russia's Nord Stream pipelines is first and foremost beneficial to the United States, which is interested in forcing competitors off the European natural gas market.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of being behind the damage to the Nord Stream pipelines. He said it had already "practically begun to destroy shared European energy infrastructure," stressing that "it is obvious to all who is profiting from this."