Foreign Ministry: Denmark will not be able to “sweep under the carpet” the topic of the Nord Stream investigation

Foreign Ministry: Denmark will not be able to “sweep under the carpet” the topic of the Nord Stream investigation



Copenhagen is not interested in conducting an investigation that would reveal the customers and perpetrators of sabotage on gas pipelines, but Denmark will not be able to “sweep this issue under the rug,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. Her comment on Saturday published on the website of the department.

On March 16, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lökke Rasmussen announced that Copenhagen would not give Moscow permission to participate in the Nord Stream investigation. According to him, the investigations of Denmark, Sweden and Germany can be trusted, because in these countries "the rule of law reigns."

“It is well known that Denmark has been deliberately delaying consideration of the issue of granting Nord Stream AG a permit to build the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the exclusive economic zone of the kingdom for two and a half years. A very significant attitude. Obviously, even then, Copenhagen worked out the instructions of its overseas patrons, ”said Zakharova.

In her opinion, Copenhagen was initially not interested in conducting an investigation that "could shed light on the true perpetrators and customers of the attacks." Zakharova also drew attention to Denmark's "indistinct reaction" to information about the discovery by an operator in February 2023 of an object in the area of ​​a welded joint during an inspection of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

The Foreign Ministry also stressed that the Danish authorities did not give "any intelligible answer" to any of Moscow's appeals, and this despite the fact that the Russian Federation, as the owner of the gas pipelines, is the injured party. The department recalled that Copenhagen did not respond to the proposal of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on the participation of representatives of the Russian federal executive authorities and Gazprom in the investigation, but despite the refusal of the Foreign Ministry, it will continue to seek answers. Zakharova stressed that "sweeping under the carpet" this issue will not succeed.

“We proceed from the fact that only a comprehensive and open international investigation with the mandatory participation of Russian representatives is able to provide the public with reliable and objective data on the causes, perpetrators and customers of sabotage,” the statement says.

Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov answered Russia's ban on participating in the investigation into the Nord Stream explosions, which was announced on March 16 by Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen. Ushakov recalled that on February 21, in the economic zone of Denmark, on one of the lines of the gas pipeline towards Russia, a certain cylindrical object 30-40 cm high was found, moreover, at the junction of pipes, “which is important in terms of a possible explosion.” The operator company Nord Stream AG informed the Danish side about this.

Ushakov said that he personally summoned the Chargé d'Affaires ad interim twice, and his response was "rather vague." “We don’t know what kind of investigation the Danes themselves will conduct, but objectivity in it will obviously not be enough, because they don’t want to let us in, although the topic is sensitive and extremely important,” Ushakov said.

On March 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had proposed to the Danish authorities to form an international group of experts and conduct a survey of the Nord Stream lines, but received an ambiguous answer.

The Nord Stream incident occurred on the night of September 26, 2022. Pressure dropped in both pipelines. Two subsequently discovered leaks were in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Sweden, and two more were in the Danish EEZ. Initially, Germany, Sweden and Denmark agreed to conduct a joint investigation, but this idea was later abandoned. In October 2022, Sweden announced the completion of the investigation, stating "increasing suspicions of gross sabotage", but those responsible for what happened were not named.



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