Parliamentarians are looking for ways for an international investigation into the undermining of Nord Stream

Grigory Karasin, head of the Federation Council (SF) Committee on International Affairs, at a meeting of the upper house of parliament called for contacting the Russian Foreign Ministry and initiating an international independent investigation into the explosions on the Russian Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines that occurred at the end of September 2022 The senator referred to the investigation of the American journalist Seymour Hersh, who on February 8, citing a well-informed source, stated that the United States and Norway were involved in the sabotage.

“The data presented in the investigation once again show the neo-colonial orientation of Western policy, the desire of the United States to dictate its will to the countries of Europe and the whole world, their thirst for total control and world domination. We see that in order to achieve their goals, they are ready for any steps, while not disdaining the commission of international crimes,” Karasin said. In his opinion, “no other state in the world would allow itself such a thing.” He believes that “this terrorist act is based on the illusion of permissiveness, exclusivity and impunity.”

“We must ensure that the principle of the rule of law is strictly observed by all participants in international relations, especially those who themselves constantly appeal to it,” Karasin stressed. In an independent international investigation, he suggested using the “Hersh evidence”.

Karasin was supported by Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko, who called the Nord Stream explosions “an undisguised act of state terrorism.” “We need to conduct a thorough investigation, identify the perpetrators and, of course, bring them to justice,” she said. The senators supported the appeal to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

On the eve of Karasin’s speech, the State Duma Committee on International Affairs initiated an international investigation into the incident in the Baltic Sea. He submitted to the lower house of parliament a draft appeal to the UN. It also mentioned Hersh’s investigation materials. According to the deputies, the American’s material should “become a reason for a thorough international investigation, punishment of those responsible and compensation for the damage caused.” However, before the start of the investigation, the State Duma Committee on International Affairs laid the responsibility for causing “multi-billion dollar damage” to the owners of the energy infrastructure of Russia, Germany, France and the Netherlands on the administration of US President Joe Biden.

Shortly after the registration of the draft appeal to the UN in the database of the State Duma, the official representative of the Secretary General of the international organization, Stephane Dujarric, said that they do not have the appropriate mandate required to conduct any investigation. “We will need a specific mandate from the legal body of the UN,” he said.

One cannot count on a practical effect in terms of initiating an international investigation with the help of such initiatives, Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, believes. “These initiatives will not continue – the reaction of the West is already clear: this is ignoring. They already pretended to be [расследование Херша] insinuations of an aged journalist. But it is right to draw attention to this,” the political scientist told Vedomosti.

The explosion of three strings of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines occurred on the night of September 26, 2022 near the island of Bornholm. Swedish seismologists registered two explosions on the routes of occurrence of highways. Both pipelines lost pressure, and later two leaks were discovered, which were located in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Sweden, and two more in the Danish EEZ. Both countries began investigating the sabotage, later joined by Germany. Subsequently, all three states abandoned this idea.

According to 85-year-old Hersh, the initiator of the sabotage is Joe Biden, who decided on it after more than nine months of secret discussions with the homeland security team. The journalist notes that from the first days of the existence of the Nord Stream, Washington considered it a threat to the dominance of the West. According to Hersh, during the NATO exercise BALTOPS in the summer of 2022, American divers planted explosives under the Nord Streams, and on September 26 of the same year, a Norwegian Navy aircraft dropped a sonar buoy that set off the planted explosive devices.

Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, called the information about US involvement in the bombing “complete fiction”. The Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Patrushev, after the publication of the Hersh investigation on February 8, said that he did not know who had staged the explosions at Nord Stream. Nevertheless, in Russia, on the fact of sabotage, the Investigation Department of the FSB, based on the materials of the Prosecutor General’s Office, in September 2022 opened a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 361 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (act of international terrorism). Law enforcement authorities then reported that as a result of the explosion of Russia’s gas pipelines, “significant economic damage” was caused.