Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Western media reports about the involvement of Ukrainian activists in the Nord Stream explosions "complete nonsense".
Source: Russian Interfax, citing an interview with Putin on the Rossiya-1 TV channel
Details: Putin commented on Western media reports that "Ukrainian activists" may have been involved in blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines as follows.
Quote: "I am sure that this is complete nonsense. An explosion of this kind, of such power, at such a depth, can only be carried out by specialists, and supported by all the power of the state, which possesses certain technologies.
Moreover, the terrorist attack was obviously carried out at state level, because no amateurs could carry out such an action."
More details: According to the president of the aggressor country, the US may have had an interest in blowing up the gas pipeline. Putin believes that the US is interested in "supplying volumes of its own, in particular liquefied natural gas, even if it is much more expensive, 25-30% more, than Russian gas".
Background:
On 7 March, The New York Times published an article citing sources and intelligence data that seem to indicate that non-governmental groups, which could include Russians and Ukrainians, were behind the explosion at the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
Moreover, according to German media, the investigation in Germany has identified a vessel that was used to sabotage the Russian Nord Stream gas pipelines in autumn 2022 and believes that it is somehow connected to Ukraine.
Mykhailo Podoliak, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has said that Ukraine was not involved in the explosions and had no information about any pro-Ukrainian agents who could have been.
Germany and the US urged the public to wait for the official results of the investigation before discussing who may have been involved in the sabotage.
At the same time, Putin's administration called articles about the "Ukrainian footprint" in the Nord Stream explosion "a coordinated info dump".
The President's Office stated that Ukraine had no motive to sabotage the Nord Stream pipeline near the shores of Denmark and Sweden, whereas Russia did have a clear motive.
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