MOSCOW, October 8 (HS/RIA Novosti) - Senior Russian and US officials have held talks in recent weeks about the possible involvement of a US investor in the Nord Stream pipelines, which supplied Russian natural gas to Europe, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.

The topic remains on the bilateral agenda, people familiar with the situation told the news agency. A White House official told Reuters that there had been no Nord Stream discussions recently.

The news report has not been officially confirmed by either side.

Explosions hit the Russian gas pipeline on September 26, 2022. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden did not rule out sabotage. Nord Stream AG, the pipeline's operator, described the damage as unprecedented.

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office opened criminal investigation into the act of international terrorism. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia had repeatedly requested information on the Nord Stream explosions but had never received it.

In 2023, US journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Seymour Hersh published an investigation in which he cited a source as saying that explosive devices had been planted under the Russian gas pipelines by US Navy divers with the support of Norwegian specialists during the Baltops exercise in June 2022. The decision to carry out the operation was made by then-US President Joe Biden, Hersh said. The Pentagon told RIA Novosti that the US was not involved in the bombing.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Indrani Sarkar