Russians push baseless theory blaming US for burst pipeline

The Kremlin and Russian state media are aggressively pushing a baseless conspiracy theory blaming the United States for damage to natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in what analysts said Friday is another effort to split the U.S. and its European allies.

The Russian position is also reverberating on social media forums popular with American conservatives and far-right groups.

NATO leaders believe the damage to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines between Russia and Germany is the result of sabotage. NATO has refrained from identifying a suspect pending an investigation into the damage.

Russia began blaming the U.S. quickly after the damage was reported Monday night. On Friday, speaking at a ceremony to annex four Ukrainian regions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said “Anglo-Saxons” in the West were behind the “terror attacks” but did not specify any nations.

Pravda and other Russian state outlets reported Thursday that the U.S. operates underwater robots capable of carrying out the acts of sabotage. The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman wrote about her suspicions of U.S. involvement in a Telegram post.

“Europe must know the truth!” Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram Wednesday.

President Joe Biden on Friday dismissed Russia’s claims.

“It was a deliberate act of sabotage. And now the Russians are pumping out disinformation and lies,” Biden said. “… When things calm down, we’re going to send the divers down to find out exactly what happened. We don’t know that yet exactly. But just don’t listen to what Putin’s saying. What he’s saying we know is not true.”

The assertions of U.S. responsibility cite Biden’s threat in February to stop the recently completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline if Russia invaded Ukraine. “If Russia invades … then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2,” Biden said. “We will bring an end to it.”

The two Nord Stream lines were not in operation but were filled with tons of methane that began bubbling to the surface following the damage. Russia recently shut off the Nord Stream 1 pipeline as it ramped up energy pressure on Europe. Nord Stream 2 has never been used.

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson played the Biden clip on his show Tuesday and brought up the possibility that the U.S. was behind the sabotage.

“If they did this, this will be one of the craziest, most destructive things any American administration has ever done, but it would also be totally consistent with what they do,” Carlson said.

Former President Donald Trump also reposted Biden’s remarks on Truth Social along with a call for the U.S. to remain “cool, calm” in its relations with Russia. “Wow. What a statement. World War III anyone?” he wrote.

Contacted for a response, a spokeswoman for Fox News forwarded transcripts from past episodes of Carlson’s show, including one in which he discussed a conspiracy theory about supposed secret bioweapon research in Ukraine.

A spokeswoman for Trump did not immediately respond to a message on Friday.