BRUSSELS, October 21. /TASS/. The participants in a two-day EU summit in Brussels condemned the acts of sabotage against critical infrastructure such as the Nord Stream gas pipelines and promised a united and determined response, says the final statement of the EU summit, circulated on Friday, in which there is no mention of either responsibility for this crime or its investigation.
"The European Council strongly condemns the acts of sabotage against critical infrastructure, such as those against the Nord Stream pipelines. The European Union will meet any deliberate disruption of critical infrastructure or other hybrid actions with a united and determined response," the statement reads. It contains a call addressed to all EU countries to "take urgent and effective measures" "with a view to enhancing the resilience of critical infrastructure."
Before the acts of sabotage against Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 Brussels strongly criticized these projects as instruments of Russia’s energy influence on Europe.
The European Commission had repeatedly stated that those gas pipelines were not among the priorities for the European Union. Moreover, in 2019, the European Commission fast-tracked the adoption of amendments to the EU gas directive in order to administratively halve the maximum possible throughput of the Nord Stream 2 gas carrier that was still under construction.
Sabotage and secret investigation
Earlier, Nord Stream AG reported "unprecedented damage" that occurred on September 26 on three strings of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipelines and was discovered within a few hours. The first leak was identified on Nord Stream 2 near the Danish island of Bornholm. Two leaks from Nord Stream were spotted later. Swedish seismologists said they had registered two explosions on the Nord Stream routes. The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, classified the incidents as sabotage.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the responsibility for the situation should be placed squarely on the West, which, he said "has actually began to destroy the pan-European energy infrastructure."
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that Russia's attempts to take part in the investigation of the Nord Stream incidents had run into what he described as a wall of unwillingness to unearth truth, which would surprise many in Germany, Sweden and Denmark.
He said Russia was conducting very intensive work via diplomatic channels with Germany, Sweden and Denmark. But this activity "has so far run into a wall of unwillingness to interact in any way and the unwillingness to unearth the truth, which will surely surprise many in these European countries, should it be established and made public," Peskov said.