The Russian embassy in the United States said on March 29 that the United States attempted to play down the information that the United States was suspected of participating in the bombing of the “North Stream” natural gas pipeline, while the American media turned a blind eye to the environmental problems caused by the destruction of the “North Stream” pipeline.

The U.S. government believes that European countries have launched a “full and independent” investigation into the damage to the “North Stream” pipeline. The Russian embassy in the United States issued a statement on the social media “Telegram” on the 29th, responding to the US statement. The statement said: “We believe that this is an obvious attempt to downplay the information (disclosed) by well-known journalists, and that US intelligence agencies may be directly involved (in the destruction of the “North Stream” pipeline), which is not good for the United States.”

The well-known journalist mentioned by the Russian embassy in the United States is Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh. The investigative reporter broke the news on his personal blog in February, using an unnamed source as the source, that the destruction of the “Beixi” pipeline was related to the US intelligence agency and the US military.

Hersh disclosed that the U.S. intelligence agency began planning to sabotage the “Beixi” pipeline in December 2021. After months of planning, US President Biden finally made the decision. Several U.S. Navy divers dived into the sea to plant bombs in June last year, and a Norwegian Navy plane detonated the bomb after dropping a sonar buoy in September.

The White House accused Hersh’s report of being “wrong” and “completely fictional”; the Norwegian government said Hersh’s allegations were “meaningless.”

On September 26 last year, two “North Stream” pipelines that transport natural gas from Russia to Germany and other European countries through the Baltic Sea suffered a strong underwater explosion, and a large amount of natural gas leaked. A total of four leaks were found in the “Beixi-1” and “Beixi-2” pipelines, which are located in the waters near Sweden and Denmark. All parties generally believe that the incident was “sabotage”. Days later, Denmark, Sweden and Germany each started independent investigations. Russia has repeatedly called for a joint investigation, but the relevant countries have rejected it.

Russia and other countries recently submitted to the United Nations Security Council a draft aimed at promoting the United Nations to conduct an international investigation into the “Beixi” pipeline explosion, but the Security Council failed to vote on the 27th. Russian officials were outraged by this. Russian President’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on the 28th that Russia will do its best to continue to promote an international investigation on this incident.

In addition to exposing and criticizing the United States for attempting to play down the information that US intelligence agencies were suspected of participating in the bombing of the “North Stream” natural gas pipeline, the Russian embassy in the United States also condemned the US media for turning a blind eye to the environmental problems caused by the destruction of the “North Stream” pipeline.

“The destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline may cause serious damage to the environment, and this issue has been completely silenced in the local information space,” wrote the Russian embassy in the United States. “The Russian side would like to remind you that after the Second World War, The bottom of the Baltic Sea has sunk hundreds of thousands of munitions containing toxic chemicals … an explosion in these waters has the potential to turn into an unprecedented environmental disaster, causing irreparable damage to the countries in the region.”

After the “Beixi” pipeline was damaged in September last year, many environmental protection experts worried that the natural gas leakage in the pipeline would release a large amount of greenhouse gas methane, which may endanger the environment.

Rob Jackson, an environmental scientist at Stanford University in the United States, and David Stings, a chemical oceanographer in Florida, said that if the Danish government’s “worst estimate” comes true, the “North Stream” pipeline leak is equivalent to releasing about 500,000 tons of methane, which is Five times the amount of methane released when the Aliso Canyon gas well in the United States leaked in 2016.