Russian President Vladimir Putin told Tucker Carlson that the United States has, in his opinion, the motive and the means to blow up the Nord Stream gas pipeline, a claim that follows by just days the inconclusive report of the Swedish investigation into the blast.
The United States “for sure” blew up the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic sea, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed during his interview with broadcaster Tucker Carlson this week. The allegation, which he made without corroborating evidence, was said to be self-evidently true because the U.S. had both the motivation and the means to damage the energy infrastructure.
When probed for further details, such as “evidence” for the claim by Carlson, and even in response to the suggestion proving who blew up Nord Stream might constitute a “propaganda victory” for Moscow, Putin refused to be drawn. He replied: “, I won’t get into details, but people always say in such cases, look for someone who is interested. But in this case, we should not only look for someone who is interested, but also for someone who has capabilities, because there may be many people interested, but not all of them are capable of sinking to the bottom of the Baltic Sea and carrying out this explosion.”
Asked why he wouldn’t give up what he knew on what Tucker called “the biggest act of industrial terrorism ever”, Putin shrugged off the question by stating it was pointless trying to go toe-to-toe with the U.S. on the “war of propaganda” because Washington “controls all the world’s media”, so Moscow couldn’t hope to compete. “It’s clear to the whole world what happened” to Nord Stream, said Putin, so elaborating any further would not be cost-effective.
While light on new information, the exchange on Nord Stream did at least allow one of the few moments of light relief during the otherwise staid interview, with Putin accusing Tucker personally — either by design or misinterpretation — of having blown up the pipeline. Both men laughed as he attempted to reply, and Tucker riposted: ” I was busy that day. I did not blow up Nord Stream. Thank you though!”.
“The CIA has no such alibi” for the day the pipeline was destroyed, was Putin’s rejoinder, one of several occasions over the course of the interview Putin namechecked the U.S. spy agency. Bizarrely, the former KGB agent appeared to rib Carlson over the fact he had applied to join the CIA after college, but had apparently been turned down.
The interview exchange over Nord Stream came just days after Sweden ended its official pipeline destruction investigation without managing to come to a conclusion on who blew up the infrastructure. As reported, the fact Sweden managed to come to no conclusion has raised some questions. Kenneth Øhlenschlæger Buhl of the Royal Danish Defense College suggested the decision to not point fingers may indicate “there could have been some kind of a political involvement”, in other words a cover-up.
Øhlenschlæger Buhl continued; “There might be a good reason for not going out with a conclusion… Sweden stands in a sensitive position as it wants to join NATO and may not want to rock the boat further.”
Sweden is on the verge of joining NATO, and has near full support in the alliance to do so, as formerly neutral Finland did last year.
The Nord Stream pipeline attack took place on September 26 2022, with a number of underwater explosions destroying Nord Stream 1 and damaging the nearby and newly built, but never activated Nord Stream 2. These pipes had been built as part of a major collaboration between Russia and Germany, meant to transport natural gas into central Europe while bypassing Eastern European nations like Poland and Ukraine.
The pipeline had long been controversial and the source of claims of undue Russian influence and corruption in Germany. That the German government was making the nation’s state of health so dependent on Russian good faith was a key criticism of the lax attitude of European patterns to the NATO alliance of Donald Trump, who warned Germany had become a “captive to Russia”.
