MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. The United States pretends not to be involved in the Nord Stream incident, leading to the conclusion that the West's commitments cannot be trusted, special envoy of the Russian president for environmental protection, ecology and transport Sergey Ivanov told TASS.
"They just pretend that nothing happened, that there were no explosions, and that they had nothing to do with it together with the Norwegians, leading to the conclusion that not only the collective West's word cannot be trusted in general, but also its written commitments," Ivanov said.
He also stressed that the environmental damage from the terrorist act at Nord Stream gas pipelines is present but the global, the political damage is much higher. "If we speak about such narrow segment as the environmental damage from the terrorist act of Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion, it is present, but it is not a critical one, I would say. It is difficult for us to assess the environmental damage just because we have no access to any investigation. All that is passing by, without our participation," the special envoy said.
Ivanov cited opinions and assessments of Western experts as regards the explosion. "They approximately come down to the fact that the one-off release of methane and carbon dioxide from the explosion of gas pipelines corresponds to about 30% of annual emission of such substances by Denmark. The one-time damage is in place but it is not critical at a global scale," the special envoy noted. "I would say the political damage is much more important than the environmental damage," he added.
Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said earlier that Russia has requested that a UN Security Council meeting be held to discuss the Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage on February 22.
On February 8, US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in his article, citing a source, that the Nord Stream pipelines were bombed using explosive devices planted by US Navy divers in June 2022 under the guise of the BALTOPS exercise, with support from Norwegian specialists. According to Hersh, the operation was authorized by US President Joe Biden personally, following nine months of discussions with White House security specialists.