Volodin urged to recover damages from the undermining of the Nord Stream from Western companies

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proposed to calculate the damage caused to Russia as a result of the explosion of Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2, and to recover this amount from Western companies located in Russia. He stated this during the plenary session.

“Let’s take it, calculate the damage, we’ll discuss it with you, present it, because if someone thinks (that) it’s impossible to recover, it’s not,” he said (cit. by Interfax).

Volodin reminded that there are enough foreign companies in Russia that keep their funds inside the country. “When now our money is being counted abroad, hoping to take it and use it for its intended purpose, we have funds from other countries, foreign companies, shareholders, in large volumes,” the State Duma speaker emphasized.

The Nord Stream incident occurred on the night of September 26, 2022. Then pressure dropped in both pipelines, and later two leaks were discovered that were located in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Sweden, and two more in the Danish EEZ. Initially, the three countries agreed to conduct a joint investigation, but later this idea was abandoned. Sweden has already completed an investigation, but those responsible for what happened have not been named.

In early October, the Swedish State Security Service (SEPO) announced the completion of the investigation at Nord Stream. Investigators said they were “increasing suspicions of gross sabotage”, but they also did not name those responsible for the incident.

February 8, 85-year-old American journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh published investigation of the Nord Stream incident, in which, citing an unnamed source, he stated the involvement of the United States and Norway in the explosion. According to him, during NATO exercises in the summer of 2022, American divers planted explosives under gas pipelines, and in September, a Norwegian Navy plane dropped a sonar buoy that set off the explosives, the journalist concluded.

At the White House refuted this information, calling it “complete fiction”. After that, the Russian Embassy in the United States urged Washington to prove non-involvement in what happened. At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declaredthat the US authorities not only admit their involvement in the explosions, but also “talk about it with pleasure.”