UNITED NATIONS, February 22. /TASS/. Western countries are showing no intention to cooperate with Russia on an inquiry into last year’s blasts targeting the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, Russia’s UN envoy has said.
"We have strong reasons to doubt the effectiveness, transparency, and impartiality of investigations that are being carried out under some national jurisdictions," Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya told the UN Security Council on Tuesday. "We do not see our partners being eager to cooperate."
He noted that Germany, Denmark and Sweden "ignored the communications that Prime Minister of Russia, [Mikhail] Mishustin, addressed to them in October 2022 regarding participation of relevant Russian agencies and PJSC Gazprom in the investigations," while "relevant requests of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation were declined."
"Since we talk about a crime that was committed by means of an explosive device, which makes it subject to the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings of 15 December 1997, we expect that all states that have to do with the incident, namely the US, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, will fulfill their obligations under this document. But leadership of these states do not show any political will or rather do not have any," the Russian diplomat said.
The national investigations of Germany, Denmark and Sweden into the sabotage of Russia’s Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines are aimed at protecting the United States, Russia’s UN envoy said.
"Those so-called investigations by Scandinavian states and Germany not only lack transparency, but, and this has become obvious by now, are aimed at covering up the tracks and exculpating the big American brother," Vasily Nebenzya told. "We are not allowed to partake, and all our requests are ignored with arrogance."
"With the Nord Stream sabotage, neither the motive of the crime nor the perpetrators or the method raise any doubts," Nebenzya added.
On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported unprecedented damage that 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 based on charges of international terrorism.
On February 8, US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article, which said, citing sources, that US Navy divers had planted explosive devices under the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines under the cover of the BALTOPS exercise in June 2022, and Norwegians activated the bombs three months later. According to the journalist, the decision to conduct the operation was made by US President Joe Biden personally, following nine months of discussions with White House security specialists. White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a comment to TASS that Hersh’s account was "utterly false and complete fiction.".