Russia is not involved in Nord Stream incidents: Spokeswoman
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Russia stresses that it had nothing to do with the Nord Stream pipeline incidents and points a finger at the United States.
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Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova
Russia has no involvement in the Nord Stream incidents, and it never declared its intention to cut off its energy resources to Europe despite the West repeatedly imposing sanctions on it, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Thursday.
"May I ask when exactly Russia has wanted to stop supplying energy resources to Europe? When have we decided to no longer want to supply energy resources to our Western so-called partners?" Zakharova said in response to accusations that Moscow had a hand in the Nord Stream incidents and that it no longer wanted to supply Europe with energy.
Denmark's maritime traffic agency and Sweden's Maritime Authority on Monday reported a "dangerous" gas leak in the Baltic Sea close to the route of the inactive Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which experienced an unexplained drop in pressure.
The leak, southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm, "is dangerous for maritime traffic" and "navigation is prohibited within a five nautical mile radius of the reported position," the agency warned in a notice to ships.
Zakharova underlined that her country has long been a reliable supplier of energy, not decreasing its supplies despite the West's behavior and treatment of Moscow.
"During all these decades, no matter what, despite the Cold War, despite fierce outbursts of hatred against us, despite the sanctions pressure, despite the hybrid war and all sorts of other nasty things directed against our country, no one at any level has ever said that we will not supply our energy resources to European citizens. This has never happened before," she added.
Furthermore, Zakharova urged the United States to admit to its role in the explosions that took place on the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines, as well as take responsibility for what happened.
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which runs parallel to Nord Stream 1 and was intended to double the capacity for undersea gas imports from Russia, was blocked by Berlin in the days before the start of the war in Ukraine.
"The US said via the Pentagon spokesperson that it has nothing to do with the incident. But we know how it acts… Anyway, the US should explain and admit [to its involvement]," Zakharova told a press briefing in Moscow.
It was revealed yesterday 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.
Flightradar24 data showed that earlier this month, a US Navy Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk helicopter spent hours loitering over the location of the damaged natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea near Bornholm for several days in a row, September 1, 2, and 3, in particular.
Read next: US military aircraft circled Nord Stream incident site in September
These revelations come after German newspaper Der Siegel reported Tuesday 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.
An informed source told the German magazine that Berlin had been told by the CIA a few weeks ago that there would be attacks on the key pipelines supplying a huge portion of Europe's energy from Russia.
