Medvedev asserts that Russia is free to destroy its enemies’ submarine cables
By Jay Faulconbridge
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday there was no reason why Moscow should not destroy its enemies’ underwater communications cables, given Western complicity in the Nord Stream gas pipeline bombings.
On September 26, there was a sharp drop in pressure in both pipelines and seismologists detected explosions, sparking a wave of speculation about sabotage of one of Russia’s most important energy corridors.
It is not yet clear what exactly happened and Western countries have denied involvement. Some US and European officials initially suggested that Russia was responsible for blowing up its oil pipeline, an explanation President Vladimir Putin dismissed as stupid.
In recent months, US newspapers such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal have reported that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has learned of a Ukrainian plot to attack pipelines. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied that Ukraine had attacked them.
“If we start from the apparent complicity of Western countries in blowing up Nord Stream (gas pipelines), then we will be left with no restrictions – not even moral ones – that prevent us from destroying the undersea cable communications of our enemies,” said Medvedev, the former Russian president who is now deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers, on the telegram. Russian security.
Undersea cables that cross the world’s oceans have become global communications arteries. Their importance has made them the center of a growing geopolitical competition between China and Russia, on the one hand, and the United States and its Western allies, on the other.
Russia has repeatedly said that the West – in particular the United States and the United Kingdom – are behind the Nord Stream explosions. The Kremlin has repeatedly said that the world should know the truth about what happened.
Moscow has demanded an international investigation into the destruction of gas pipelines, a project designed by the Kremlin to bypass Ukraine and export its gas under the Baltic Sea directly to Western Europe.
Andrei Lednev, Minister Counselor of the Russian Embassy in Washington, said, “It would be useful to think about the reasons for the strong reluctance on the part of the collective West to launch a transparent and objective international investigation under the auspices of the UN Security Council.”
(Information from Reuters; Edited in Spanish by Benjamin Mejias Valencia)
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