US and UK intelligence “directly involved” in Nord Stream sabotage – Russia’s spy chief
American and British saboteurs were behind the blasts that crippled the key pipelines, Sergey Naryshkin has said
The US and British intelligence services were involved in the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, has said.
The key energy infrastructure, built to deliver Russian gas to Germany and the rest of Europe, was ruptured by explosions on the bottom of the Baltic Sea in September 2022.
“It has long been known that the West uses international terrorism as a tool to achieve its geopolitical goals. However, the Western intelligence agencies themselves also do not hesitate to resort to terrorist methods in fighting their opponents,” Naryshkin said during a meeting with the heads of security agencies and intelligence services from former Soviet republics on Tuesday.
According to the Russian spy chief, the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines was one example of such activities.
“The SVR possesses information about a direct involvement of professional saboteurs from the Anglo-Saxon (American and British) special services in this terrorist attack,” he stated.
Naryshkin noted that Nord Stream was a joint project between companies from Russia and other European countries, intended to provide for “an uninterrupted supply of affordable Russian gas to Europe.”
“Meaning that Russia built it together with constructively minded Europeans, and the Anglo-Saxons blew it up,” he said.
The SVR head insisted that “destroying Nord Stream was an obsession not only of the Democratic, but also of the Republican administration in the US.”