MOSCOW, April 12. /TASS/. Moscow will do its best to prevent Western countries from suppressing the topic of Nord Stream explosions, official spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said.
"We insist on a comprehensive, open international investigation [of Nord Stream explosions] with compulsory participation of Russian experts," Zakharova said. "Russia will do everything possible, everything needed to prevent the collective West from giving the low profile to this topic," she noted.
Nord Stream AG reported that "unprecedented damage" occurred on three strings of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines on September 27. Swedish seismologists registered two explosions on subsea routes of pipelines on September 26. The Russian Office of the Prosecutor General initiated an international terrorism case thereafter.
US investigative journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh said in his 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.