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Putin described the claims as “rubbish,” asserting that he had previously never even heard of the pipeline, as it is so small.
He went on to say that the assertion
that Russia was to blame was aimed at diverting attention away from the Nord Stream explosions, which Moscow has repeatedly pinned on the US and the UK. The Kremlin has called on the UN to hold an independent investigation into the blasts – but the idea has been rejected by the Security Council. Washington and London deny any involvement.
Various US newspapers have reported that there was a Ukrainian plot to destroy the pipelines, and that the CIA was aware of the plans before they were carried out. And in February, veteran US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh cited unidentified sources as saying that the US navy had carried out the attacks at the behest of the Biden administration. The White House has dismissed that report as “utterly false and complete fiction.”
What next?
Regardless of the cause of the Balticconnector's leak, authorities are taking no chances.
Finland announced at the end of last week that it was tightening access to parts of the Inkoo port where its sole LNG terminal is situated. The UK has meanwhile said it will expand its military presence in northern Europe, including by deploying 20,000 troops to the region next year to defend critical infrastructure against potential Russian attacks.
Finland’s interior ministry said it was setting up a working group to add the port of Inkoo to a national decree that restricts movement and residence permits.
"The decree contains items where movement and residence are restricted under the Police Act," it said in a statement.
Authorities elsewhere in Europe are likely to beef up security across their vital energy infrastructure, fearful of attacks ahead of the upcoming heating season.
European Parliament to tighten rules to protect journalists and media outlets
Tamas Csonka in Budapest
The European Parliament on October 4 approved the European Media Freedom Act, which is aimed at guaranteeing greater press freedom in the member states and limiting distorting state advertising. The legislation aims to ensure media plurality and protect media independence from governmental, political, economic or private interference.
The bill was approved with an overwhelming majority, 448 in favour, 102 against and 75 abstained.
Speaking to Politico after the vote, European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said media law will be "a major warning signal" for EU countries and could well turn into a thorn in the side of the Hungarian leader Viktor Orban.
"We cannot unscramble the scrambled eggs [in Hungary]," Jourova said, in
a country "where everything and everybody is dependent on one party", where "there is no public media but state media" and where "the difference between supporting a media economically in a transparent way and a corrupted media in a hidden way is big".
Under Viktor Orban’s 13-year rule, Hungary's media landscape changed dramatically since 2010 and this came in parallel with the decline of media freedom and the country’s fall in various rankings measuring press freedom rankings.
With the government’s help, 500 pro-government media outlets owned formerly by the prime minister’s cronies were concentrated in a foundation (KESMA).
The media conglomerate operates with vast financial state funding, as advertising revenues favour pro-government outlets. Independent media maintain strong positions in other segments of the national market but are threatened by the discriminatory allocation of state funding.
State media has always been a battleground of parties, but it became a mouthpiece of the government after Orban’s second supermajority in 2014.
The news departments, from TV to radio to the national news agency (MTI), have been perfectly subjugated by the government in recent years, with content often aligned with the government’s political interests.
During the last election, the opposition’s joint prime minister was given five minutes of airtime in the campaign.
To assess media independence, Parliament wants to oblige all media, including micro-enterprises, to publish information on their ownership structure.
Members also want media, including online platforms and search engines, to report on funds they receive from state advertising and on state financial support. This includes funds from non-EU countries.
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