РУССКИЙ
11:16 13.11.2024 •
Nikolay Patrushev
Photo: RIA Novosti
The US is no stranger to assassination attempts on its presidents, as history has shown, so American intelligence agencies and the Secret Service will need to stay on their toes to keep President-elect Donald Trump out of harm’s way, Russian presidential aide Nikolay Patrushev said in an interview with the Kommersant daily.
Trump’s security is a major issue, he said. "We know about two assassination attempts on him during the election campaign," said Patrushev, who was director of Russia’s Federal Security Service from 1999-2008. "In general, attempts on the lives of US presidents and presidential candidates are nothing unusual - there have been over 20 of them. Four US presidents were murdered while in office," he recalled.
"Thus, it is of the utmost importance that US intelligence agencies prevent this from happening again," he added.
Trump survived two assassination attempts this year, one during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July, when a sniper shot at him, grazing his ear, and a second in September, when a radical supporter of aid to Ukraine opened fire near Trump’s Mar-o-Lago residence in Florida.
Four US presidents have been assassinated during their terms – Abraham Lincoln (1865), James Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901), and John F. Kennedy (1963).
Only NATO forces were capable of attacking the Nord Stream underwater pipelines, while Ukraine had neither equipment nor specialists for the job, Kremlin aide Nikolay Patrushev said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper.
"Even Danish naval authorities do not hide the fact that American ships were in the area of the explosions the day before. At the same time, anyone interested in the capabilities of foreign navies knows that the Ukrainian Navy has neither equipment nor trained specialists to carry out a deep-sea terrorist attack. Only special-purpose units of NATO countries could carry out a sabotage of that scale," he said.
According to Patrushev, it is known for a fact that US and UK intelligence services have combat swimmers and relevant equipment.
"So calls by [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz to conduct an allegedly unbiased investigation, with some Ukrainians blamed for the sabotage, sound ridiculous. The US is deliberately depriving Germany of Russian energy resources that it needs so much for its development, while the current German leadership is playing along with those who are essentially destroying the German economy," the official said.
Russian Presidential Aide and Maritime Board Chairman Nikolay Patrushev has warned of the possibility of new terrorist attacks by the US and the UK similar to the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines.
"According to available information, the Americans and the British consider the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines as one of many methods of promoting their economic interests. New infrastructure, including offshore fiber-optic cables that provide communications around the world, may come under their attack," the presidential aide told Kommersant.
On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported "unprecedented damage" on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system. Later, Swedish seismologists said they had identified two explosions on the route of the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26, 2022. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov then said that Moscow had no doubt that the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines was carried out with the US support. Following the incident, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office initiated a criminal case on charges of international terrorism.
Russia's Black Sea Fleet is combat-ready and prepared to face challenges and counter naval threats, Nikolay Patrushev, Russian presidential aide and chairman of the Maritime Board, has said in an interview with the daily Kommersant.
"I have just visited the Black Sea Fleet to look into the combat duty routine of the fleet's forces. I am certain about its combat capability and readiness to confront challenges and naval threats," he said.
Patrushev noted that despite Kiev's aggressive actions in the region, coordinated by NATO specialists, there is nothing that might look like "defeat" of Russia's fleet in the Black Sea.
The presidential aide pointed out that Russia would not let anyone to weaken its position in the region.
"Moreover, we will not tolerate the permanent naval presence of non-Black Sea states in violation of the Montreux Convention," Patrushev added.
read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs
