Nord Stream blasts carried out on 'state level': Putin
2 Min Read
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismisses claims that suggest that an autonomous pro-Ukraine organization was responsible for the Nord Stream blasts as "complete nonsense".
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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting on road construction development via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, June 2, 2022 (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that last year's blasts on the Nord Stream gas pipelines had been carried out on a "state level", dismissing claims which suggest that an autonomous pro-Ukraine organization was responsible for the blast as "complete nonsense".
This comes shortly after the New York Times reported last week that intelligence examined by US authorities revealed that the pipelines were attacked last September by a pro-Ukraine group, most likely comprised of Ukrainians or Russians.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines connecting Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea were attacked by a series of unexplained explosions last September. At the time, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov labeled the act as state terrorism that cannot pass by without a serious international investigation.
Denmark, Germany, and Sweden have conducted their own investigations into the explosions, but Moscow claims it has been kept in the dark about the investigation.
On this issue, Putin said in an interview with Rossiya-1 TV channel, "We asked the Danish authorities... about a request to work together or to form an international group of experts, specialists."
"The answer, as I said, was vague. Simply put, no answer. They said we had to wait," he added.
Elsewhere in his remarks, he speculated that the United States gained from the Nord Stream blasts.
"One should always look for those who are interested. And who is interested? Theoretically, of course, the United States is interested," Putin said.
"An explosion of this kind, of this power, at this depth can only be carried out by specialists, and supported by the full power of the state, which has certain technologies," he added.
The Nord Stream gas pipelines were ruptured by subsea explosives on September 26, seven months after the start of the Ukraine war.
In February, veteran US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported that with Norway's assistance, the United States was behind the operation to bomb the pipelines.
Back then, the White House described Hersh's report, which cited an unnamed source, as "complete fiction".
Read more: Kremlin blasts Western media downplay of Hersh’s documents
