Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist claims US behind Nord Stream pipeline blast
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist claimed that US Navy divers planted the bombs that destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines under the Baltic Sea last September.
According to The Week, Seymour Hersh, an 82-year-old US-based Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, claimed in his blogpost that Americans planted remotely-triggered explosives that damaged the three of the four pipelines built to carry natural gas from Russia to Europe.
According to Hersh, the Navy conducted the operation under the guise of a NATO maritime exercise, BALTOPS 22. "Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely-triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning," read Harsh's report.
The underwater blast resulted in a burst of Methane gas to the surface. As per reports, over 500 million cubic meters of gas was lost, equivalent of 8 million tons of carbon dioxide, or 1/5000 of annual global CO2 emission. Hersh blamed the USA and Russia for this situation. He said Moscow had "something to hide" and deliberately blocked Russia from investigation.
Hersh's report said America's political fears were that "Germany and the rest of Western Europe would become addicted to low-cost natural gas supplied by Russia" which would diminish European reliance on America.
However, the plan to sabotage the pipeline was made long before the war began. The plan was put forward at a meeting with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. On February 7, US President Joe Biden had said, "If Russia invades ... there will be no more Nord Stream 2. We will put an end to this."
Though the explosives were planted during the exercise in June, the US did not to trigger the explosions until September. However, the White House has come out against Hersh's report, calling it "utterly false and complete fiction."
"This is utterly false and complete fiction," said Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council was quoted by Reuters. The spokespeople for the CIA and State Department said the same.
Russia's foreign ministry too responded to the statement, adding the United States had questions to answer over its role in explosions on the pipelines.
