Only NATO forces are capable of attacking the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 underwater gas pipelines, Kremlin aide Nikolay Patrushev stressed in an interview with Kommersant newspaper.
“Even the Danish naval authorities did not hide the presence of the American ship in the area of the explosion the day before. At the same time, anyone interested in the capabilities of foreign navies knows that the Ukrainian Navy has neither the equipment nor the trained specialists to carry out a deep-sea terrorist attack. Only special units of NATO countries can carry out sabotage on such a scale,” he said.
Mr. Patrushev noted that the US and British intelligence agencies both have personnel with underwater combat capabilities and relevant equipment. Therefore, the German investigation's claim that the Nord Stream incident was carried out by a group of Ukrainian divers is inappropriate.
Patrushev, who served as head of Russia’s Security Council for more than a decade, also said in an interview with the Kommersant daily published on November 11 that there was information about the possibility of similar attacks on the Nord Stream pipeline “to promote the economic interests” of the West. “They could attack other infrastructure, including undersea fiber-optic cables that provide communications around the world,” Patrushev said.
The Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines run through the Baltic Sea to deliver Russian gas directly to Germany. Both pipelines were destroyed in an underwater explosion in September 2022. Several Western media reported that a group of six Ukrainian divers on a small yacht planted explosive devices that ruptured the pipeline.
