'Germany is still occupied by the Americans:' says Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not one to mince words. He has often gone out of his way to take it out on his adversaries. He has now attacked German leadership, stating that the country is "still occupied" by the United States. The remarks from Putin came during an interview with a Russian state TV channel when he was asked about the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions.

"The matter is that European politicians have said themselves publicly that after World War II, Germany was never a fully sovereign state," said Putin. "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.

He went on to add that the blasts on the Nord Stream gas pipelines were carried out on a "state level," and dismissed the claims that the explosions were carried out by a pro-Ukraine group.

"One should always look for those who are interested. And who is interested? Theoretically, of course, the United States is interested. An explosion of this kind, of this power, at this depth, can only be carried out by specialists, and supported by the full power of the state, which has certain technologies," Putin stated.

Putin's claims came after several media reports cited unidentified government officials saying that the "pro-Ukraine groups" were responsible for the blasts. The Ukrainian government also dismissed the reports stating that it had no role in the attack. The reports suggesting Ukrainian involvement in the incident could affect its relationship with Germany.

The Nord Stream project is a network of natural gas pipelines that run through the Baltic Sea to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany. It has the capacity to transfer up to 55 billion cubic meters of gas to Germany. A part of the 1,224-km (760-mile) long pipeline runs from Russia to Germany at a depth of around 80–110 meters.

In September last year, leaks were detected in the pipelines. It later came to light that explosions had ruptured the Russian-built Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines. The blasts were exposed by an American journalist, Seymour Hersh. The explosions released more than 100,000 metric tons of methane into the sea and the atmosphere, per a report on Nature.com.

Germany had to turn to countries like Norway for gas supplies to meet its energy requirements. The development led to a steep increase in gas prices. The explosions eventually led to a blame game, with Germany's defence minister claiming that the blasts could have been a "false-flag operation to blame Ukraine."

Russia believes that reports of Ukrainian involvement in the incident were a cover-up by the West, writes Aljazeera. No statements have been issued by the Western nations addressing Putin's latest claims on the Nord Stream explosions.

Earlier, Russia's defence ministry accused the British navy of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines. However, the claims were made without any evidence to back them up.

"According to available information, representatives of this unit of the British Navy took part in the planning, provision, and implementation of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on September 26 this year—blow up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines," the Russian ministry had said.

But Britain rejected all such allegations stating that the Russian government was trying to "detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine."

"The Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale," the British defence ministry said. "This invented story, says more about arguments going on inside the Russian government than it does about the West."