MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. It is critically important to determine what kind of object was found next to the Nord Stream 2 pipe, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.
"It is positive news when the owner of the pipe has been invited to take very important actions as part of the investigation, because the discovered object is located next to the pipe seam. The seam, as you know, is the most vulnerable section of the pipeline, and the explosion also occurred at the seam. Therefore, it is very important and critical to determine what kind of object it is, whether it is related to the terrorist attack - and apparently it is - and continue the investigation," Peskov said.
"The investigation must be transparent, inclusive in terms of the participation of all interested parties there," he stressed.
Peskov said it is necessary to take a "wait and see" approach to determine what is "behind the invitation of the Danish Energy Agency.
About found object
Earlier, the Danish Energy Agency invited the operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to participate in the effort to lift an unknown object discovered near the pipe from the seabed. The Danish Energy Agency said it was waiting for a response from Nord Stream 2 AG before the operation commenced.
On March 14, President Vladimir Putin said that a Gazprom ship had found evidence that could mean there’s another explosive device on a Nord Stream pipeline 30 kilometers from the site of the previous terrorist attack.
Putin also said that Gazprom had previously received permission from Denmark to examine the site of the explosion at the Nord Stream undersea natural gas pipeline, but the ship that the company hired went further along the pipeline. According to him, "a little stake was found, which was placed at a location that’s similar to where the blast took place." He explained that he was referring to pipe junctions, the most vulnerable spots of any gas pipeline.
Specialists believe it might be an antenna to receive a signal to detonate an explosive device that could have been planted under the pipeline system. According to the Russian president, "it appears that several explosive devices were planted" along the Nord Stream. "Some of them went off, and some didn’t. The reasons are unclear," Putin 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, 2022, 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.