Russia said on Thursday that the United States expected to profit from damage to the Nord Stream gas pipeline on the floor of the Baltic Sea, a comment that escalated a war of words with the West over responsibility for the still-unexplained damage.

At a press briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the United States will be able to increase sales of liquefied natural gas (LNG) if the pipelines are finally decommissioned, Agerpres reports.

The European Union is investigating the causes of leaks in Gazprom’s Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea and has said it suspects sabotage.

Neither was used during the incidents, but both contained large amounts of gas.

It remains unclear who could have been behind the deliberate attack on the pipelines, which Russia and its European partners have spent billions of dollars building, according to Reuters.

Earlier on Thursday, the Kremlin said that the damage was caused by state-sponsored “terrorism”.

There is no timeline for repairs to the pipes, which suffered four separate breaks, assuming they can be repaired.

Zakharova also called for an “objective” EU investigation and said Washington would have to “explain itself” – referring to President Joe Biden’s comment in February that if Russia sent troops to Ukraine, “Nord Stream 2 will not exist”.

Biden referred to the possibility of sanctions against the pipeline, which were completed weeks before Moscow sent its forces into Ukraine and then frozen by Germany before the start of the military campaign, according to Reuters.

Maria Zakharova: “Since the beginning of the Nord Stream 2 project, the participating countries have been under unprecedented economic and political pressure from Washington”

Maria Zakharova also stated that the region is saturated with NATO infrastructure, the official Russian press agency TASS notes.

In July, NATO member countries conducted exercises using deep-sea equipment near the source of the Nord Stream, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.

“In July, NATO exercises using deep-sea equipment took place in the area of ​​the island of Bornholm,” she emphasized.

Zakharova also stated that European countries refuse to believe that their allies could have been behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.

“We really want to believe that the international investigation into what happened to the gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea will be objective,” she said, recalling that Russia has been a reliable supplier of energy resources to Europe for decades, TASS reports. .

“And who decided to destroy the supply of Russian energy resources, even the possibility of these supplies reaching the Europeans? “Since the beginning of the Nord Stream 2 project, all its participants, both from Russia and from third countries, have experienced unprecedented economic and political pressure from Washington,” she concluded.

Four gas leaks from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines connecting Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea were reported in the exclusive economic zones of Denmark and Sweden this week.

Gas supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline were suspended by Russia this month, and the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline was not put into operation due to European sanctions imposed on Moscow after the start of military aggression against Ukraine. Despite the fact that two pipelines were decommissioned, they remained filled with gas, Reuters reminds.

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