Maria Zakharova; credit: Russian Foreign Ministry/TASS
Attempts by the US State Department to label Seymour Hersh’s article about the sabotage of Nord Stream pipelines “nonsense” are “overt lies” that display “shocking ignorance of American history”, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Friday.
Veteran investigative journalist Hersh reported on Wednesday that the US was behind the destruction of the Baltic Sea pipelines on September 26,2022. American divers planted charges under the cover of a NATO exercise, and a Norwegian airplane detonated them remotely when the time came, Hersh claimed.
State Department spokesman Ned Price called Seymour Hersh’s Nord Stream revelations “nonsense” on Thursday.
When asked by a reporter whether he viewed the US government’s denial of involvement in the attack as credible, Price replied: “I absolutely do, and I repeat it here.”
Answering a question on whether the US State Department contacted ambassadors from Germany, Norway and other allies after the article was published, Price said: “It would not be typical for us to engage allies and partners on something that is utter and complete nonsense and that should be rejected out of hand by anyone who is looking at it through an objective lens.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said she was astonished by Price calling what US President Joe Biden and Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland had openly described as their preferred outcome, “nonsense”.
On Sept. 30, 2022, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the Nord Stream attack “a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs.”
“The US is once again lying live on air, openly mocking journalists who asked fully justified questions,” Zakharova said.
Washington has a history of targeting civilian chemical infrastructure, Zakharova said, citing the 1983 CIA sabotage of a pipeline in Nicaragua as an example.
“You did this, you do this, and you will do this until you’re stopped,” Zakharova said.
“Twenty years ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell brought to the UN Security Council a vial of something, and called [on] allies and partners to invade a sovereign state, without any evidence, over claims that proved to be utter nonsense. Ned, do you know your own department’s history?” Zakharova said. “I have no doubts that at the State Department they are bad with the history of their own country. That’s why we are where we are.”
Zakharova called for „an international investigation into the facts … so that the public receives reliable information about the motives, executors & organisers of those subversive acts.“
On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Washington owes the world an explanation: “We have noted the reports,” Mao Ning said. “If Hersh is telling the truth, what he revealed is clearly unacceptable and must be answered for. The US owes the world a responsible explanation.”
Mao criticzed media attempts to memory-hole the explosive story: “It only proves that some media outlets care little about the truth. They pretend not to see the truth that really matters and, more often than not, try to sell false narratives rather than the truth.”