Kremlin: The West is trying to remove the topic of sabotage at Nord Stream from the agenda

Western countries are trying to exclude the topic of sabotage on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines from the information agenda, but Russia will not let this happen. This was stated to journalists by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov.

“Western countries are taking all possible measures to wrap up, speaking in Russian, this topic, to drown it out, so that this topic is not on the agenda. But, of course, Russia will continue to do everything possible to prevent this from happening,” he said.

Commenting on the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry that Moscow may demand compensation for damages for undermining gas pipelines, Peskov agreed that it is first necessary to identify those responsible for the sabotage. Now all the data, according to him, indicate that such a large-scale act of sabotage and terrorism “could not have been committed without the participation of states and special state services with all their potential.”

Formerly Director of the Department of Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Dmitry Birichevsky declaredthat Russia “does not rule out later” raising the issue of compensation for damage due to the undermining of the Nord Streams. The diplomat also noted that Western countries are “actively sabotaging” the work on the draft resolution of the UN Security Council on an independent international investigation of sabotage.

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.

On March 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian side offered the Danish authorities to form an international group of experts and conduct a survey of the Nord Stream lines, but received an ambiguous answer. 16 March Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lökke Rasmussen informedthat Copenhagen will 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.”