US 'main beneficiary' from Nord Stream leaks: Russian Security Council
As investigations are still ongoing to identify the main motive and culprit behind the four pipeline explosions, fingers are pointing to the US for sabotaging the gas sources.
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Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev (TASS)
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev stated on Friday at a meeting of the heads of intelligence agencies of the CIS countries, after the fourth explosion hit the Nord Stream pipelines, that the United States is the main beneficiary of the emergency situation.
"Literally from the first minutes after reports of explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, the West launched an active campaign to find those responsible. However, it is obvious that the main beneficiary, primarily economic, is the United States," Patrushev said.
The Russian official reminded the meeting of an incident ironically similar to this, which took place in October 1983 in the undermining of an underwater pipeline in the port of Puerto Sandino in Nicaragua, urging the necessity of making "a coordinated effort to expose the customers and perpetrators of this crime, which would be a good example of our effective interaction."
Russia has materials implicating West in Nord Stream explosions: Foreign Intel
In the same context, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service chief Sergei Naryshkin told reporters on Friday that Russia already holds proof that the West is accountable for the pipeline explosions. "We already have some materials that point to the Western footprint in organizing and carrying out this terrorist act," Naryshkin said. He expressed that the West does everything to "hide the true organizers and perpetrators of this international terrorist act."
Swedish police began investigations when the first explosion happened on Tuesday that led to a gas leak in the Baltic Sea. That same day, former Polish minister and member of the European Parliament Radoslaw Sikorski tweeted "Thank you USA," along with a picture of the massive gas spill in the Baltic Sea. Off the shore of the Danish island of Bornholm, both pipelines sustained significant damage in what is now largely seen as a premeditated attack. That tweet has been deleted as of Thursday.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell expressed on Wednesday, a day after the explosions, that they were a result of a deliberate attack, adding, "Safety and environmental concerns are of utmost priority. These incidents are not a coincidence and affect us all." Suspicions began arising after reports of US military helicopters habitually and on numerous occasions circling for hours over the site of the Nord Stream pipelines incident near Bornholm Island earlier in September, according to Flightradar24 data.
In response, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova told the Soloviev Live TV show on Thursday, "Speaking of where [the incident] occurred. <...> There have been allegations that those are neutral waters and so on. But that is the exclusive economic zone of Denmark and Sweden, <...> the very NATO-centric countries that are stuffed with US-made weapons and which are fully controlled by American intelligence agencies, <...> who have the entire control of the situation over there." She further added that Russia never declared its intention to cut off its energy resources to Europe despite the West repeatedly imposing sanctions on it.
