Moscow:

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the Nord Stream pipeline explosion, which cut off Russia’s main route for natural gas exports to Europe and heightened geopolitical tensions.

He said such an explosion could only be accomplished by someone “interested” and “capable” of launching such an attack.

“I won’t go into details, but people always say in situations like this: ‘Looking for people of interest,’” Putin said in an interview with former Fox News reporter Tucker Carlson. “But in this case, we You should not only look for people who are interested, but also look for people who are capable.”

In September 2022, the Nord Stream gas pipeline was attacked in the Baltic Sea, cutting off Russia’s main route for exporting natural gas to Europe and exacerbating geopolitical tensions.

“Because there may be a lot of people who are interested, but not all of them have the ability to sink to the bottom of the Baltic Sea and conduct this explosion. The two components should be linked: who is interested and who has the ability to do it,” as he said, as quoted in the Russian president’s transcript.

When asked why Germany, which suffered a huge economic impact from the incident, did not react much to it, the Russian president said that today’s German leadership is guided by the “Western collective” rather than its own “national interests.”

He also hinted that Russia is ready to supply natural gas to Europe through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but Germany has not yet opened it.

“After all, it’s not just the bombed Nord Stream 1 and the damaged Nord Stream 2, but there is a pipeline that is safe and sound through which gas can be supplied to Europe, but Germany does not want to open it. We are ready ,” Putin said.

On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported “unprecedented damage” to three lines of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines. Swedish seismologists recorded two explosions near the pipeline on September 26, TASS news agency reported.

It is worth noting that Russia accused the United States of planning the explosion and called it a “terrorist attack.” However, the United States denies any involvement.

In March 2023, German media claimed that a pro-Ukrainian group used a ship departing from the port of Rostock to sabotage the pipeline. Ukraine has denied that it may have ordered the attack, and German officials expressed caution over the report, Al Jazeera reported.

Recently, Sweden said it had concluded its investigation into the 2022 explosion that crippled Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline.

Swedish authorities had previously said they suspected an unidentified state actor was responsible, but they would stop the investigation after verifying that the case did not fall within their jurisdiction, Al Jazeera reported.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)