Florian Philippot, leader for The Patriots, April 17, 2021, Lyon (AFP)

The United States was "obviously" behind the bombing of Russia's Nord Stream pipelines since they've been fighting the pipelines for years, said the leader of France's The Patriots, Florian Philippot.

Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning US investigative journalist, wrote in February that US navy divers had laid bombs under the pipelines during their summer training and exploded them remotely at the order of US President Joe Biden while citing a familiar source.

Hersh referred to US officials who may have carried out the act as "lunatics", while reiterating. "He did it. He did it," referring to President Biden's involvement.

"Even before the theory put forward by Hersh, who is a very reputable journalist, it was obvious that the Americans were behind the bombing. Even before the war in Ukraine, the US had been fighting the Nord Stream pipelines for years, it had become a permanent element of their policy," Philippot said.

The French politician added that in early February of 2022, Biden publicly declared that Americans had the ability to make the pipelines go away, which happened, highlighting that the act was in America's interests.

Philippot now questions whether Washington planned and executed the bombing alone, or together with Norway.

"And there is nothing absurd about this because Norway is Russia's gas competitor, and Russian gas has been replaced by Norwegian gas in many countries. So they also had their own interests and enriched themselves at this expense," Philippot explained.

The Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines were built to deliver gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. They have been out of action since they were hit by explosions last September.

Nord Stream AG, Nord Stream's operator, described the damage as unprecedented and deemed it impossible to estimate the time repairs might take.