MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. Russia is not surprised by the findings of US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that Norway was involved in the explosions at the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
"We have analyzed the American journalist’s publication about the explosions at Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, <…> we are not surprised by the conclusions of the American journalist of Oslo's involvement in these acts of sabotage," she said, adding that Norway obeys the United States and the European Union in its foreign policy.
According to Zakharova, the Nordic countries are not interested in identifying those who are really to blame for the terror attack on the Nord Stream pipelines. He stressed that Russia had repeatedly offered its assistance to Denmark and Sweden in investigating the terror attacks, including in Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s messages. "But the requests from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office to the corresponding agencies in these countries have been turned down. It is absolutely obvious that their authorities are not interested in identifying those responsible and, it looks like, they are interested in the opposite, i.e. hiding information, facts and evidence," she said.
"Obviously, the facts [cited by Hersh] should be the subject matter of an international investigation, but it can hardly be expected that the Norwegian authorities will demonstrate an unbiased position and be ready for constructive cooperation on this matter," she added.
"We insist that only a comprehensive and open investigation involving relevant Russian agencies and the Gazprom company will be able to yield reliable and objective data on the causes, perpetrators and contractors of these acts of sabotage," she stressed.
According to US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh’s article published on February 8, explosives were planted under the Russian Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines by US Navy divers with assistance from Norwegian specialists under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 exercise last June. The story cited an unidentified source as saying that US President Joe Biden personally authorized the operation after nine months of discussions with administration officials in charge of security matters. Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council at the White House told TASS, replying to the news agency’s question, that the Hersh story was totally false and complete fiction.
On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported unprecedented damage that had occurred the day before on three strings of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipelines. On September 26, Swedish seismologists registered two explosions on the pipeline routes. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office launched a criminal case on charges of international terrorism.