The ongoing investigation in the West into the Nord Stream explosion is unlikely to identify the real culprit behind the incident, RT quoted SVR Director Sergey Naryshkin as saying.
Mr. Naryshkin accused the US and UK of being directly involved in the attack on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines in 2022.
Sergey Naryshkin made the remarks at a meeting of intelligence officials of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Astana, Kazakhstan last week. The speech was published on the SVR website on October 7.
The ongoing Western investigation into the attack is unlikely to identify the real mastermind and perpetrators, while the public has been fed unbelievable theories about the sabotage through the media, the SVR chief said.
"Russia has repeatedly requested data on the Nord Stream explosion from European countries, but has never received it. Western media are trying to blame a group of Ukrainian amateur divers, accusing them of acting independently. However, this is a version designed for a naive ordinary person," Naryshkin said.
The SVR has "reliable information" indicating "direct involvement of the United States and Britain in this major terrorist attack," SVR Director Naryshkin said. The attack involved special services from both countries and "professional saboteurs."
"The US administration considers it justified to carry out such destructive actions to divide Europe and above all to divide Germany from Russia," the intelligence chief said, hinting that Washington was "unsure" whether it could convince Berlin and other European Union (EU) countries to abandon their "extremely profitable" economic ties with Moscow.
"The US and the UK will be held responsible for this. As the old saying goes, you reap what you sow," Mr. Naryshkin concluded.
The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines were built under the Baltic Sea to transport Russian gas directly to Germany. The pipelines were disabled by powerful underwater explosions in September 2022.
In a February 2023 article, Pulitzer Prize-winning American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh alleged that the attack was directed by the White House, with US military divers placing explosives on gas pipelines, using a NATO exercise in the Baltic Sea as cover.
While Washington strongly denies the allegations, Moscow says the theory is plausible.
Another theory about the attack emerged in the Western media shortly after Hersh's shocking revelation and quickly became the most dominant theory related to the incident.
The attack was blamed on a privately funded group of Ukrainian amateur divers, who were said to have acted on behalf of then-Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny.
Mr. Valery Zaluzhny later became the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom.
