US and UK considering new Nord Stream-style attacks – Putin aide
The US and the UK are considering staging new attacks on critical undersea infrastructure reminiscent of the Nord Stream pipelines bombing, Nikolay Patrushev, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has said.
Patrushev, who led Russia’s Security Council for over a decade before assuming his new role this year, made the remarks in an interview with the Kommersant daily published on Monday.
“According to available information, the Americans and the British are viewing the sabotage on the Nord Stream pipelines as one of many methods to advance their economic interests. They could attack other infrastructure facilities, including undersea fiber optic cables that provide communications throughout the world,” Patrushev stated.
The senior official also reiterated Moscow’s position on the 2022 Nord Stream attack, stating that the theory that it was bombed by some freelance Ukrainian divers did not hold any water.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines were built under the Baltic Sea to deliver Russian natural gas directly to Germany. Both were destroyed by underwater explosions in September 2022. A number of Western media outlets later claimed that a six-strong crew of Ukrainian divers on a small yacht had planted the explosive devices that ruptured the pipelines.
“Anyone interested in the capabilities of foreign naval forces knows that the Ukrainian Navy has neither the equipment nor the trained specialists to carry out a deep-sea terrorist attack. Only special forces of NATO countries could carry out a sabotage of such scale,” he said, adding that it is “known for certain” the UK and the UK both possess such capabilities.
The ultimate goal of the Nord Stream bombing - as well as of the alleged potential new attacks - is to sow chaos and destabilization worldwide, Patrushev believes.
“Since the hegemony of the West began to falter, Washington decided to bring chaos to the energy market, including by destabilizing maritime transportation,” the official explained.
Patrushev pointed to the US campaign against the Yemen based Houthi group, which he said is officially designed to protect maritime traffic, but in reality serves as a “smokescreen” for plans to spark an “escalation in the region.”
Destabilization is needed to put pressure on major consumers, including China and India, and to lay a foundation for grabbing more of the global energy market, he suggested.
