MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/. The authorities of European countries have shown their lack of principles by getting involved in the conflict in Ukraine, they sacrificed their own sovereignty and the well-being of their citizens, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Yury Kokov said talking to reporters.

"The European political authorities are phenomenally unprincipled and hypocritical. At the instigation of the Anglo-Saxons, they became involved in a military-terrorist adventure in Ukraine, sacrificing not only sovereignty, economic potential, but also the well-being of the citizens of their states," he said.

He also commented on Sweden's decision to stop the investigation into the explosions of the Nord Stream pipelines. The pipelines made it possible to supply Russian gas to northern Europe, bypassing the territory of Ukraine.

"Blowing up gas pipelines is just one episode in a series of their criminal intentions. There is no doubt that the European political authorities will have to answer for what they have done, and above all to their people," the official said.

About sabotage on Nord Stream 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. On September 28, 2022, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office opened a case concerning an act of international terrorism.

On February 8, US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article that claimed, citing anonymous 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 that the Norwegians then activated the bombs three months later.

Later, The New York Times reported, citing American officials, that a certain "pro-Ukrainian group" that acted without the knowledge of the US authorities could have committed the sabotage on the gas pipelines.

On Wednesday, Sweden’s Prosecutor’s General Office announced that the case into the sabotage on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines had been closed. Stockholm stated that Swedish jurisdiction does not extend to the incident and handed over the available data to Berlin, which is still continuing to study the circumstances of the terrorist attack on the pipelines.