MOSCOW, March 27 - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the United States has been aiming to take control of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, infrastructure that was heavily damaged by explosions in September 2022.
Those blasts, which destroyed the pipelines more than three years ago, largely cut the transit of Russian gas to Europe. The disruption tightened energy supplies on the continent even though Russia had already largely halted deliveries at the time. Both Russia and Western countries have described the incident as an act of sabotage.
Investigators have spent years attempting to determine who carried out the attacks. Last year, a Ukrainian man was arrested in Italy on suspicion that he coordinated the explosions, according to available accounts.
In an interview with France Televisions, Lavrov framed the alleged U.S. interest in the pipelines as part of a broader campaign to assert control in global energy markets, citing examples such as Venezuela and Iran to illustrate Washington's reach. "The United States is also now saying that it wants to take over the Nord Stream pipelines," he said, according to the text of the interview released by Russia's foreign ministry.
Lavrov did not offer further specifics to substantiate the claim.
Press accounts in 2024 indicated that an American investor, Stephen P. Lynch, had expressed interest in purchasing the two-pronged Nord Stream 2 pipeline; one of the two lines of that pipeline remains intact. No additional details about any transfer of control or completed transactions were provided in Lavrov's remarks.
Context and continuing uncertainty
The statement reiterates competing narratives around the September 2022 explosions and underscores lingering uncertainties about both responsibility for the sabotage and the eventual fate of the damaged infrastructure. While Lavrov presented the U.S. position as part of a strategic effort to shape energy markets, he supplied no corroborating evidence or operational details about how such control would be established.
This account leaves several questions open, including who might legally or practically assume ownership or operational control of the damaged pipelines, and what steps, if any, would be required to repair, repurpose, or divest the infrastructure.