INVESTIGATIVE journalist Seymour Hersh made another claim saying that United States (US) President Joe Biden sought to threaten Russian President Vladimir Putin to dissuade Russia from attacking Ukraine.
Pulitzer-prize-winning investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh has argued that the US intended to use the threat of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines in an effort to dissuade Russia from attacking Ukraine.
Speaking to a German online magazine on Friday, Hersh claimed that Biden originally saw the threat of Nord Stream sabotage as a means of deterrent.
He then claimed that plans for a possible attack started toward the end of the year 2021, around the time when Washington was accusing Moscow of a military buildup along the Russia-Ukraine border.
“The idea was to find something extraordinary that the president could use, like an enticement or a threat, to convince Putin not to attack Ukraine,” according to Seymour Hersh, Investigative Journalist.
“Above all, it was a threat. I don’t think this administration is very good at persuasion. They operate more along the lines of, ‘you’re with us or you’re against us,” said Hersh.
The idea was to tell Putin:
“We will blow up the pipelines if you cross the Ukrainian border,” said Hersh.
Two weeks before Russia started its offensive in February 2022, Biden vowed that his country would bring an end to Nord Stream if Russian forces entered Ukraine, and as the conflict rages on, the US and its allies have since imposed sanctions against Russia while supplying Ukraine with various assistance including humanitarian and military aid like artillery, tanks, among other weapons.
To recall, Seymour Hersh published articles earlier this year, alleging that the Nord Stream explosion was a joint operation carried out by the US and Norway and was commissioned by US President Joe Biden.
The said pipelines, located in the Baltic Sea, were originally built to deliver Russian gas to Germany.
Hersh alleged that the goal of the operation was to sever Germany from cheap energy supplies from Russia, which would solidify Berlin’s support in the Ukraine conflict.
Another bombshell was dropped by Investigative Journalist Seymour Hersh this March, claiming that the US intentionally provided false stories to the media in order to cover up its involvement in the destruction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Russia announced that it fully agreed with Hersh’s conclusions, while the US and Norway strongly rejected the allegations, calling them as utterly false and complete fiction.
As the Nord Stream blast saga continues with no signs of resolution in the matter, Russia continues to call for an independent investigation on the case.
Last month, the United Union (UN) Security Council rejected Moscow’s plea to establish an international commission to probe the blast.
The motion, however, was supported only by Russia, China, and Brazil.
Meanwhile, 12 other UN body members abstained.
Vassily Nebenzia, Moscow’s permanent representative to the UN, said after the vote that the suspicion about who stands behind the Nord Stream sabotage would only increase.
