Kremlin again points to ‘Anglo-Saxons’ over Nord Stream pipeline blasts

MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin, commenting on a report that the United States had known last year of a Ukrainian plan to attack the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines, said on Thursday it had already raised the possible involvement of “Anglo-Saxons”.

Unexplained explosions ruptured both Nord Stream 1 and the newly built Nord Stream 2 pipelines, carrying gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, last September.

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing leaked information posted online, that the CIA learned last June through a European spy agency that a six-person Ukrainian special forces team intended to blow up the pipelines.

“We have already talked about the data we have about the possible involvement of the Anglo-Saxons in this terrorist attack against international energy infrastructure,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“All other details should be revealed in the course of a transparent international investigation, which is not currently taking place, and the Russian side is not allowed to join any attempted investigation.”

The Kremlin uses the term “Anglo-Saxons” to refer to the United States and Britain.

Russia’s despatch of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 put Europe’s reliance on Russian natural gas in the political spotlight, and the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines hastened the region’s switch to other energy suppliers.

The blasts occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. Both countries said the explosions were deliberate, but have yet to determine who was responsible. Those countries and Germany are investigating.

Washington and NATO called the incident “an act of sabotage”. Moscow accused investigators of dragging their feet and trying to conceal who was behind the attack.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Alexander Marrow and Kevin Liffey;Editing by Andrew Osborn and Susan Fenton)