MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/: The fact that Washington is denying that it was involved in the explosions at the Nord Stream gas pipelines only confirms the version by journalist Seymour Hersh that the US had a hand in the terrorist acts, official spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said.
"The attempts of the American side to deny the facts vigorously, tossing in all sorts of fabrications and obscure versions like the ‘involvement of private companies,’ <...> coupled with the vague explanations of American satellites, support the Hersh version," the spokeswoman said at a briefing on Wednesday.
Nord Stream AG reported that "unprecedented damage" occurred on three strings of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines on September 27. Swedish seismologists registered two explosions on subsea routes of pipelines on September 26. The Russian Office of the Prosecutor General initiated an international terrorism case thereafter.
US investigative journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh said in his article published on February 8, explosives were planted under the Russian Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines by US Navy divers with assistance from Norwegian specialists under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 exercise last June. The story cited an unidentified source as saying that US President Joe Biden personally authorized the operation after nine months of discussions with administration officials in charge of security matters.
