MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/. The Swedish Prosecution Authority’s decision to stop investigating the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea was driven by the fact that the country is in the process of joining NATO, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.

According to the lawmaker, while Germany is trying to identify the perpetrators of the terrorist attack on Nord Stream, "Sweden has already closed the investigation on the grounds that the suspects could not be identified." "While the whole world is discussing the specific perpetrators and who benefited from this terrorist attack, the Swedish Prosecution Authority is acting according to the principle: ‘I see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing to anyone.’ This is no coincidence. Sweden is going through the process of joining NATO, a structure of American hegemonism," Volodin pointed out.

According to him, in this situation Stockholm cannot tell the truth about the explosions that blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, rendering them inoperable. "After all, the main ideologue [of the attack], and that country whose participation was essential [to the attack], is the United States. While the executor [of the attack] was Ukraine. But, if you tell the truth, you will end up with problems. Washington will not forgive such a thing," the lawmaker emphasized.

In this regard, the lower house speaker expressed the opinion that the Swedish prosecutor's office sought to fudge the delicate situation by "stooping to a sham" investigation that conceals the crime, "which primarily caused damage to Germany, the Netherlands and France." Volodin pointed out that, as a result of the sabotage of the gas pipelines, these EU countries lost a source of cheap energy. "Their economies are stagnating, social programs are being cut, and [their] citizens are facing a lot of problems," he said.

According to the lawmaker, the United States has "simply punished" these European countries. "[The US,] having ‘disconnected’ [Europe] from the Nord Streams, then imposed their own expensive gas [as a substitute]. [The US has] drawn [the EU] into the war in Ukraine. [They] forced them to take in millions of refugees. They have abandoned them and are not helping in any way. Washington, with the help of NATO, is destroying the European Union, and European countries are left with problems that are not easy to resolve because of their lost sovereignty," Volodin underscored.

Diversion of gas pipelines

On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported "unprecedented damage" on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system. Later, Swedish seismologists said they had identified two explosions on the route of the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26, 2022. Following the incident, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office initiated a criminal case on charges of international terrorism. Germany, Denmark and Sweden announced their own national investigations, but refused to involve Russia.

On February 8, 2023, noted American journalist Seymour Hersh published an article claiming that explosive devices were placed on the gas pipelines in June 2022 by US Navy divers with the assistance of Norwegian specialists. Later, the New York Times reported, citing US officials, that the sabotage of the pipelines could have been committed by a "pro-Ukrainian group" acting without the knowledge of US authorities.

The Swedish prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday that it had dropped the investigation on the grounds that Sweden has no jurisdiction. The Swedish prosecutor declined to comment further to the media, including on suspects in the Swedish investigation, citing secrecy in international judicial cooperation. The Russian embassy in Sweden called the decision "a blatant display of cowardice and unprincipled behavior."