Russia called on the United States on Thursday to prove it was not involved in the explosions along the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines running between Moscow and Berlin, saying in a statement that the blasts were an act of “international terrorism.”
“We qualify the incident as an act of international terrorism that requires a comprehensive and independent investigation,” Igor Girenko, a spokesperson for the Russian Embassy to the U.S., said in a statement Thursday.
“It wouldn’t hurt if the U.S., which claims the monopoly on the truth, shifted from empty accusations directed at us to the matter at hand and at least try to prove it wasn’t involved in the destruction of the gas pipelines,” Girenko said.
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The embassy cited a recent Substack post from U.S. investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claiming that the Nord Stream blasts were a long-planned, covert operation carried out by Navy divers operating under the cover of NATO military exercises.
Hersh cited just one anonymous source in the lengthy post, whom he said had “direct knowledge of the operational planning.”
U.S. national security and intelligence officials have strongly denied the report. On Wednesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. had nothing to do with the explosion, telling reporters that “it is pure disinformation that the United States was behind what transpired.”
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White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson told the Washington Examiner last week that the report was “false and complete fiction.”
