MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/. Russia won’t let the West "sweep" the blasts at the Nord Stream pipelines "under the rug", Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.

"It is also clear why interested Western countries continue to ignore calls to hold a transparent, objective, professional and depoliticized investigation designated to establish and punish those guilty. Russia won’t allow such maneuvering dubbed as ‘let’s sweep everything under the rug’ to happen once again. Yes, this truth will be inconvenient for the West because what happened with Nord Stream 1 and 2 is a crime, a terror attack which was being plotted ideologically and politically and at that moment when, apparently, the West had exhausted all opportunities to use economic and political levers of pressure and to implement its set goal of curbing this project, they switched to plan B and physically destroyed this civilian infrastructure," she maintained.

According to Zakharova, this is not only about an unprecedented attack on an international transportation infrastructure facility but also about a highly dangerous precedent which demands a tough response by the entire global community. "This is why we will strive for justice and bring to light the hidden motives of this serious crime," the diplomat stressed.

Earlier, the Nord Stream AG company reported that three lines of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 offshore gas pipelines had suffered unprecedented damage on September 26. 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. On November 18, the Swedish prosecutor’s office stated that the gas pipeline blasts were an act of sabotage and that an investigation was underway.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the responsibility for the situation lies with the West which "virtually began destroying shared European energy infrastructure." Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that Russia’s attempts to participate in the investigation into this act of sabotage to uncover the truth kept getting stonewalled which would come as a surprise to many in Germany, Denmark and Sweden.