Kremlin urges investigation into Nord Stream incident following U.S. journalist report

MOSCOW, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that American journalist Seymour Hersh's article on the Nord Stream gas pipeline leaks confirmed the need for an investigation and punishment of the responsible.

"This was a very dangerous precedent. If someone committed it once, he can do it anywhere in the world for a second time. There are not many countries that can commit such sabotage," he said.

According to Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize winner, U.S. divers installed explosives under the Nord Stream pipelines during the NATO military exercise BALTOPS (Baltic Operations) in the summer of 2022 and finally blew them up in September.

Hersh's article was not widely disseminated in the Western media, and Russia has seen attempts to silently curtail the investigation, Peskov noted.

Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the Russian State Duma, said on Telegram earlier in the day that "the published facts should become the basis for an international investigation."