Ex-State Senator Says US Has Greatest Motive To Take Nord Stream Offline

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th October, 2022) Former Virginia State Senator Richard Black told Sputnik that the United States would have more motive than anyone else to take Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines offline.

"I think it was awfully convenient to blow them up so that the people really couldn't request to have the gas turned back on... so who had the motive to do that? Well, I'm afraid that it seems that the motive is greater for the Central Intelligence Agency and the US State Department than anyone else," Black said.

On September 26, a rapid gas pressure drop and leakage of fuel were registered on two Nord Stream pipelines that play a key role in the transition of Russian gas to Europe. The Swedish and Danish authorities said they had discovered two gas leaks, with the consensus being that the incident was a result of sabotage.

"I think what's happened - and I don't have proof of this, I can only speculate - but the United States has been worried that as the winter wore on, that people would begin to protest and to rise up and to perhaps overthrow governments and demand that the sanctions stop and that the gas be turned back on so that the economy can start up again and so that people's homes can be warmed in the wintertime."

There are not a lot of countries that can carry out an operation to set explosives off on a pipeline at a substantial depth under the ocean, Black said, adding that he does not think that the Ukrainians have that capability.

Moreover, Black said the West's accusations that maybe the Russians blew up their own pipelines are absurd because Russia has no motive to blow up its own pipelines.

On Friday, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia during a United Nations Security Council meeting said US gas suppliers stand to gain the most by shutting down the pipelines and called on the US to confirm it was not involved in the sabotage.

President Joe Biden said the attack was a deliberate act of sabotage and the United States would help in the investigation.

Moreover, the former state senator said the US public does not want the United States to get involved in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

"The American people don't want to get directly embroiled... It's not a big issue with the people but you do have military arms industries that are making huge amounts of profit," Black said.

The United States has committed, to date, more than $16 billion in security assistance to Ukraine amid Russia's special military operation.

Black further said that some special interest groups may be interested in eventually trying to dominate Russia, especially considering its wealth of natural resources.

UNLIKELY UKRAINE WILL BE ACCEPTED INTO NATO

NATO will likely not accept Ukraine's latest bid to join the alliance, Black said.

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine was applying to join NATO in an expedited manner.

"I would hope that they will not be accepted and I think they will not be," Zelenskyy said.

Russia has never been a threat to NATO or to the European Union, Black said.

NATO fully intended and has forced Russia's back to the wall, which has resulted to the current situation in Ukraine, Black said.

"This was the fault of NATO moving inexorably eastward," Black said. "In 1991, the distance between where NATO was in Germany and the Russian border was about 1,000 miles. It was an enormous buffer... we should have made that a neutral demilitarized zone that would give us an enormous amount of separation between the world's two great nuclear powers."

NATO has been allowed to gradually change from being a defensive alliance, which it was during the Cold War, to an offensive alliance that has marched inexorably eastward and reached Ukraine, Black said.

"(NATO) They decided they wanted to go right to the Russian border, and that's the reason that under the Obama administration, they staged a coup and overthrew the government of Ukraine," Black said.

Black also said that a direct conflict between Russia and NATO may be possible.

"I think there is and it is because there's this desire to take chances and to be very reckless," Black said. "It was United States intelligence that targeted 13 Russian generals for assassination, the US provided intelligence that was involved in the thinking of the Russian Flagship Moskva. These are hideously reckless acts."

Black said he recently sent a letter to the US Congress warning them that now is the time to draw back support for Ukraine and make Ukraine a neutral non-aligned country, Black said.

Black predicts Ukraine will continue to lose more territory if the conflict does not end soon.