BERLIN, March 30. /TASS/. Klaus Ernst, Chairman of the Bundestag Committee for Economics and Energy, called the decision of the German authorities not to join the Russian resolution calling for an independent international investigation into sabotage at Nord Stream incomprehensible, he told TASS on Thursday.

"The attack on Nord Stream should be investigated. Why the federal government did not join the resolution calling for an independent and internationally agreed investigation is incomprehensible to me. I consider it viable and also necessary in the light of the current situation to involve Russia in the international investigation into the attack," he said.

"In the case of pipeline explosions, we are talking about an attack on our energy infrastructure. It needs to be urgently and fully investigated. There are concerns that the results [of the investigation] will be hidden if the main affected party [Russia] does not participate in the investigation," Ernst said.

On Monday, the UN Security Council did not support a resolution by Russia and China on an international investigation into the sabotage at the Nord Stream pipelines. The document was supported by three countries, with no votes against and 12 countries abstaining. Thus, the resolution did not garner the nine votes necessary for approval. Russia, China and Brazil voted for it, while Albania, the UK, Gabon, Ghana, Malta, Mozambique, the UAE, the US, France, Switzerland, Ecuador, and Japan abstained. Belarus, Venezuela, North Korea, Nicaragua, Syria, and Eritrea were also among the resolution’s coauthors but they are not members of the UN Security Council and did not participate in the vote.

The resolution’s draft proposed to entrust UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres with establishing an independent international investigation commission "to conduct a comprehensive, transparent and impartial international investigation of all aspects of the act of sabotage on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines — including identifying its perpetrators, sponsors, organizers and accomplices.".

Nord Stream sabotage

On September 27 last year, Nord Stream AG reported "unprecedented damage" that took place on three lines of Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. Swedish seismologists registered two explosions that occurred on September 26 near the pipeline route. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office initiated a criminal case over charges of international terrorism.

On February 8, US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article, which said, citing 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 Norwegians activated the bombs three months later. According to the journalist, the decision to conduct the operation was made by US President Joe Biden personally, following nine months of discussions with White House security specialists. White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a comment to TASS that Hersh’s account was "utterly false and complete fiction.".