BERLIN, October 17. /TASS/. The German government confirms media reports that there will be no joint investigation team of Germany, Denmark and Sweden to clarify the circumstances of what happened at Nord Stream pipelines, but the three countries are working closely with each other. Press Spokesperson for the Federal Interior Minister Sonja Kock said this on Monday.
"We will not have it (a joint investigation team - TASS) in the form in which it was conceived at the very beginning. But the countries are conducting the investigation, of course, together, and law enforcement agencies always work closely with partners, just in the case of such an incident that affects several countries," she said.
Kock could not explain why it was not possible to form a group.
Earlier, the German ARD TV channel, citing sources in the German government circles, reported that Germany, Sweden and Denmark had abandoned the idea of a joint investigation of sabotage on Nord Streams and would work separately. In turn, the Der Spiegel magazine reported that Sweden did not want to share the results of the investigation with Germany and Denmark because of the high level of secrecy.
Four leaks were discovered last week on the Nord Stream gas link, with the most recent one pinpointed by Sweden’s coast guard. Earlier, the Nord Stream AG company reported that three threads of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 offshore gas pipelines had suffered unprecedented damage on September 27. Swedish seismologists later revealed that two explosions had been recorded along the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26. The Danish Energy Agency reported that a large amount of gas had spilled into the sea. After that, investigators of Russia’s Federal Security Service initiated a criminal case on an act of international terrorism in connection with the explosions.