Opinion by Maria Zakharova

The Americans claim they “had nothing to do” with the explosions of the Nord Stream pipelines even though the findings by renowned investigative reporter Seymour Hersh are widely available.

We know that they know that everyone knows that this is a lie.

The problem is not that “the United States” is the only logical answer to the oldest question in legal practice, Cui bono (who benefits?) that makes any sense; the problem is that the Americans are simply lying. I could tell you again about US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s vial hoax, but if you are tired of this story, I have plenty of others.

There is this small nation, Haiti, and it has had bad luck. It was a colony – first Spanish, then French, and then for decades, it remained under American occupation. Each of these countries drained the island and its residents’ resources as much as they could, repaying them with poverty and devastation.

The Cold War was terrible in “warm” Haiti. François Duvalier, a former physician with the American Sanitary Mission, born a Haitian, was a dictator who established the most repressive government in Haiti and ordered arrests and massive human rights abuses. The details make one’s blood run cold: the detainees had their heads chopped off and were tortured by submerging them in baths of acid. Why didn't the Americans stand up for human rights then? Because they needed Duvalier as an anti-communist, to balance Fidel Castro's Cuba, as simple as that. Washington even provided the deranged dictator with money, while paying lip service to democracy.

In the 1990s, the Americans finally stopped respecting the sovereignty of the island republic altogether. In 1994, they pushed for Security Council authorisation for a special military operation in Haiti to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power because they wanted him there. They returned him to power. Later though, when they got tired of him, they just kidnapped him like a puppet and carted him off to Africa. This is how the George W. Bush administration helped build democracy in Haiti.

And now a few words about the real assistance from the United States. In 2010, a terrible earthquake occurred on the island, killing hundreds of thousands of people; the total number of victims, including those killed and injured, exceeded half a million. The US allocated $380 million. Does this seem like a lot? But a US presidential election is 15 times more expensive. By the way, Joe Biden promised Zelensky much more than to their “allies and friends” from Haiti during the most terrible period of their history.

In 2021, Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated; his wife, Martine, was also shot in the attack.

And what was found? Suspicions that the Americans were responsible again emerged in the Western information landscape immediately.

Also that week, the US Department of Justice issued a short press release declaring that several Americans associated with American PMC CTU Security had been arrested. Official Caracas reported that CTU had earlier been involved in the failed assassination attempt on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. And at the same time, at the Security Council meetings on Haiti, the US representative continued to declare their intention to contribute to the development of democracy, organising fair elections and supporting NGOs.

Only the Americans occupy a country on a whim, remove or imprison presidents, or dispose them through murder. Consider these statistics: Haiti is ranked 170th in terms of per capita GDP (of 199); every second HIV-infected resident of the Caribbean islands is Haitian. The UN Secretary-General is calling for the deployment of an international mission to stop the constant deterioration of the situation, but Rob Wood, like his colleagues from the State Department in previous years, is telling the Security Council how the United States “will help Haiti.”

This is a very thought-provoking story for Zelensky, who so affectionately embraced Joe Biden in the centre of Kiev. How much must one hate their own people to consider a prospect similar to that of long-suffering Haiti for themselves?

So, to what extent is the US “not responsible” for sabotaging Nord Stream – as much as for the assassination of Haiti's president? Or for the vial hoax of the invasion of Iraq?