Russia may take political or "legal action" in response to a report claiming that the United States was involved in blasts that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines last year, the TASS news agency reported, citing a foreign ministry official.
In a blog post, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh cited an unidentified source as saying that US navy divers had destroyed the pipelines with explosives on the orders of President Joe Biden.
Reuters was unable to corroborate the allegations. The White House dismissed them as "utterly false and complete fiction." Norway's foreign ministry said the allegations were "nonsense."