WASHINGTON, May 5. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump said Washington is aware who is responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea, so it does not need to conduct an additional investigation of the incident.
"Probably, if I asked certain people I’d be able to tell you without having to waste a lot of money on an investigation. I think a lot of people know who blew it up," he told reporters at the White House when asked if he would consider starting a formal investigation into the explosions.
Trump reiterated he disagrees with the allegations that blame Russia for the incident.
"If you can believe it: They said Russia blew it up," he said after a reporter mentioned that some hawks blamed Moscow.
Trump opposed the construction of the Nord Stream pipelines during his first term in office. "I was the one that blew it up originally because I wouldn’t let it be built. And then when [former US President Joe] Biden got in, he allowed it to be built," he said.
On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported "unprecedented damage" on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system. Later, Swedish seismologists said they had identified two explosions on the route of the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26, 2022. Following the incident, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office initiated a criminal case on charges of international terrorism.
Investigative US journalist Seymour Hersh published an article where he said, citing a source, that explosives under the pipelines were planted by US Navy divers, with support from Norwegian specialists, in June 2022. The Biden administration flatly denied any involvement.