"We gave Putin an excuse to rally the Russian people around him. And that was really stupid," Hersh said. The journalist recalled the numerous publications that appeared a year ago about the alleged ill health of the president. "The British have written a lot more than we have, but we've said a lot too - 'he looks sick' we'd say, there was a lot of speculation," said Hersh.

At the same time, he stressed that he is not in favor of the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine. "But what we've done with the behavior I'm describing – is mostly give him an excuse that people support him. These men, with their language, this government - (Secretary of State Anthony) Blinken, (Counsellor for Homeland Security Jake) Sullivan and (Deputy Secretary of State Victoria) Nuland – they are very belligerent,” Hersh stressed.

The reporter described them as "much more hostile" than US President Joe Biden. "These three, Nuland, Blinken and Sullivan, I think they pushed him (the president of the United States) by force. They all have an incredible and long-standing hatred of Putin. I think it's almost personal," he said. concluded.

Seymour Hersh is a well-known American journalist, winner of the Pulitzer Prize (1970) for his investigation into the mass killing of unarmed civilians by US soldiers during the Vietnam War. Last week he published an article about his investigation into the incident at Russia's gas export pipelines under the Baltic Sea. He claims that US divers planted explosives under Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 during exercise Baltops 2022 and that the Norwegians detonated them three months later. According to the journalist, President Joe Biden would have decided on the sabotage after more than nine months of secret discussions with the national security team. Biden's concerns that Germany, which receives gas from Russia via the Nord Stream pipeline, would not participate in military assistance to Ukraine, would have led to this decision. Washington has denied the allegations.