Russian FSB chief accuses UK and Ukraine of ‘plotting diversions’ on TurkStream pipeline

Russian Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov attends a meeting of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Board, in Moscow, Russia, 27 February 2025. EPA/ALEXANDER KAZAKOV / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL

The head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov has accused the British and Ukrainian intelligence services of plotting attacks on the TurkStream pipeline in comments reported by Russian news agency Interfax on Thursday.

The TurkStream pipeline, which runs under the Black Sea, is used by Russia to export gas to Hungary and the Balkans, and is now the sole operational gas pipeline still connecting Russia to European markets.

Speaking at a Commonwealth of Independent States security conference, Bortnikov also said that British Special Air Service and MI6 instructors were also planning “a series of drone strikes” on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, a major pipeline that transports crude oil from Kazakhstan to a marine terminal on Russia’s Black Sea Coast.

Bortnikov also claimed that British intelligence had “directly supervised” June’s Operation Spider’s Web, a series of devastating Ukrainian attacks on military airfields deep within Russia, which, according to the Security Service of Ukraine, took out up to 34% of Russia’s military aircraft.

Following the operation, the UK “fed the media with false reports about the allegedly enormous damage caused”, and had described the attacks as “exclusively Ukrainian”, Bortnikov continued.

The FSB chief also blamed the UK for “stoking hysteria over an imaginary threat from the East”, referring to the authorities in multiple European countries accusing Russia of violating their territory with drones or fighter jets in recent weeks, prompting fears of direct military conflict between Russia and NATO.

Bortnikov, in turn, accused “NATO special services” of staging the recent drone sightings as part of their campaign against Russia, suggesting that incursions over Denmark last month had been used as a pretext for impounding an oil tanker believed to have been part of Russia’s shadow fleet, from where the drones may have been launched.

“Let me remind you that initially, London was the driving force behind the campaign to combat it, seeking to organise a naval blockade of Kaliningrad and our ships in the Baltic Sea,” Bortnikov said, adding that the UK planned to use “combat divers” to attack critical Russian infrastructure.