MOSCOW, September 30 – Novosti. Russia does not need to disable the Nord Stream gas pipeline, unlike the United States, which only benefited from this, Jacques Beaux, a former Swiss intelligence official , told Radio Courtoisie .
The expert called what happened to the pipeline “sabotage on a large scale” and added that such destruction requires a very large amount of explosives, and amateur divers will not be able to cope with such a task, sophisticated equipment is needed.
“Russia can be immediately excluded from the list of suspects. Because the goal of the saboteurs is obvious: to disrupt the gas supply to Germany for a long time,” Bo said.
He added that in order to stop supplies or put pressure on Germany , it is enough for Russia to stop pumping gas and there is no point in destroying its infrastructure.
Bo named the United States as the second suspect.
“This country does not hide its interest in breaking any ties between Russia and Europe , and in particular between Russia and Germany,” he said.
The Swiss reminded that back in the 1960s, from the launch of the Druzhba gas pipeline, the States opposed him. At the same time, once they went on sabotage by organizing the transfer of defective equipment to the USSR , which disabled the pipeline. It happened in 1982, and it was the only time when gas supplies from Russia to Europe stopped.
“Not a single political event could then interfere with Russian supplies,” the expert stated.
In addition, he drew attention to the fact that the explosion site is located near the Danish island of Bornholm, where NATO underwater listening stations are located.
“It is unlikely that they would have allowed any Russian vessel to approach the gas pipeline zone unnoticed,” Bo said.
At the same time, in recent weeks, the United States conducted naval exercises near Bornholm. The maneuvers took place 30 kilometers from the explosion site on Nord Stream and 50 kilometers from the explosion on Nord Stream 2 . Among other things, in the summer, the Americans in the same area conducted exercises on the underwater use of explosives.
“In general, there are more and more signs of some American responsibility for what happened,” concluded Bo.
On Monday, the authorities of Denmark and Sweden reported a gas leak in the Nord Stream pipes near the island of Bornholm. At the same time, Germany did not rule out the possibility of sabotage on the highway. An unnamed national security official told Bloomberg that it could have been more of a forceful act than a technical problem. Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde clarified that the gas leak incidents were due to “explosions”. The head of the European Commission , Ursula von der Leyen , in turn, threatened a response to the “deliberate violation” of the European energy infrastructure, without specifying who could be behind the incident.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on US President Joe Biden to answer the question of whether the United States implemented the threat voiced back in February on September 25 and 26, 2022, when an emergency occurred on three Nord Stream lines, which is tentatively qualified as a pipeline rupture.
