On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the September 2022 blasts that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines, which carried Russian gas to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea, had hampered cooperation between Moscow and Berlin.
Putin said this during a ceremony held in the Kremlin to accept the credentials of over 20 new foreign ambassadors to Russia, including those from Germany and the United Kingdom.
“The current frozen state of (Germany’s) relations with Russia – and this is not on our initiative, I want to emphasise – is unprofitable. It is unprofitable both for us and for you, but especially, in my view, for Germany,” Putin said.
“Energy has always been an attractive area of bilateral cooperation,” he said. “This cooperation was literally disrupted by the sabotage on the Nord Stream pipelines.”
Russia has blamed the United States, Britain, and Ukraine for the pipeline blasts. They all denied any involvement.
Putin also said on Monday he hoped that relations between Moscow and London would improve.
“Let us hope that the situation will change for the better in the interests of our two countries and peoples,” Putin said.