White House says blog post on Nord Stream explosion ‘utterly false’

The White House on Wednesday dismissed a blog post by a US investigative journalist alleging the United States was behind explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines as “utterly false and complete fiction.”

Reuters has not corroborated the report, published by US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, which said an attack was carried out at the direction of President Joe Biden.

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“This is utterly false and complete fiction,” said Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council. A State Department spokesperson said the same.

The pipelines are multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects designed to carry Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

Sweden and Denmark, in whose waters the blasts occurred, have both concluded the pipelines were blown up deliberately, but have not said who might be responsible.

The United States and NATO have called the incident “an act of sabotage.” Moscow has blamed the West for the unexplained explosions that caused the ruptures, without providing evidence.

Read more: Nord Stream probe ‘tailored’ against Russia: Kremlin