Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said Germany’s response to the explosion on North Sea pipelines showed that the country remained “occupied” by the United States.
Putin gave an interview to a Russian TV channel saying that since World War Two, Germany “was never a fully sovereign state.” He also accused European leaders of losing their independence.
“The matter is that European politicians have said themselves publicly that after World War Two, Germany was never a fully sovereign state,” Putin told state-owned Rossiya-1 TV channel during his visit to the east Siberian city of Ulan-Ude.
“The Soviet Union at one point withdrew its forces and ended what amounted to an occupation of the country. But that, as is well known, was not the case with the Americans. They continue to occupy Germany,” he added.
The Russian president commented on the blasts that hit Nord Stream gas pipelines, which intended to bring Russian gas to Germany, last year. European investigations into the explosions suggested that it was a deliberate act. According to Putin, the blasts were carried out on a “state level.”
He called a suggestion by U.S. intelligence that an independent pro-Ukraine group sabotaged the pipelines “complete nonsense.” Last week, Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the blasts could have been a “false-flag operation to blame Ukraine.” –i24 News
