MOSCOW, February 7. /TASS/. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Sweden's decision to close its investigation into the Nord Stream terrorist attacks due to an inability to identify the perpetrators "remarkable."
"The decision is remarkable, and it is remarkable that in this way it (the investigation - TASS) was terminated," he told reporters.
The Kremlin official said it will be interesting to see how meticulously Germany will approach the Nord Stream investigation.
"Now we will need to see how Germany reacts to this, because the country lost a lot because of this terrorist attack, gave up a lot due to this terrorist attack. German taxpayers are suffering, German firms and companies are suffering, they are losing their competitiveness, they are losing their profitability without this gas. It will be interesting how meticulously the German authorities will approach this investigation," Peskov said.
"Germany is a country that has lost a very important asset. There were German firms that were involved in the joint venture that was the operator of those pipes that were blown up as a result of this terrorist sabotage against this critical infrastructure. A lot of information has been published about who may be behind this," the Kremlin spokesman added.
He recalled that "Russia has repeatedly requested information during the investigation about what was found out."
When asked about what Russia intends to do after Sweden handed over the investigation of the Nord Stream explosions to Germany, Peskov said:
"But they refused [to provide this information] and are still refusing to do it. That is why we will monitor how and where further investigative actions will be carried out, and will make decisions [depending on the situation]."
"Up to now, they have simply refused to share any information on this case, and now they have chosen to simply close the book on the case," Peskov said.
About Nord Stream explosions
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.
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. The New York Times reported citing American officials that sabotage on gas pipelines could have been carried out by a certain "pro-Ukrainian group" that acted without the knowledge of the US authorities.