Russia says West trying to confuse the world over Nord Stream culprits

https://arab.news/763ym

The Russian embassy in the United States said on Wednesday that a report the United States knew of a Ukrainian plan to attack the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines was part of a coordinated Western attempt to confuse the world over the truth.

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing leaked information posted online that the CIA learned last June, through a European spy agency, that a six-person team of Ukrainian special operations forces intended to blow up the Russia-to-Germany project.

"The coordinated campaign of the West, led by the United States, to confuse the international community is sewn with white threads," Russian diplomat Andrey Ledenev was quoted as saying in a post on the embassy's Telegram messaging channel.

"The reason for the proliferating theories and versions, supported by the notorious ‘confidential’ data of the local intelligence community, is simple to the point of banality."

Several underwater explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and the newly built Nord Stream 2 pipelines that link Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea in September 2022.

The blasts occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. Both countries said the explosions were deliberate, but have yet to determine who was responsible. Those countries and Germany are investigating.

White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday that investigations into the Nord Stream attack were active.

"The last thing that we’re going to want to do from this podium is get ahead of those investigations," Kirby said when asked about The Post's reporting on the matter.

The Kremlin said in February that the world should know the truth about who sabotaged the pipelines and that those responsible should be punished after an investigative journalist said US divers blew them up at the behest of the White House.

Russia has repeatedly said the West was behind the blasts affecting the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines last September — multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects that carried Russian gas to Germany.

The Post said it agreed to withhold the name of the European intelligence agency as well as some aspects of the suspected plan at the request of government officials, citing risks to sources and operations.

The CIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters could not immediately confirm the intelligence cited by the Washington Post.