MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/. Russia will seek transparency regarding investigations into sabotage at Nord Stream, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told TASS on Tuesday.
"First, we are conducting our own investigation. Second, we will seek transparency in relation to the three investigations that are being conducted by the authorities of Germany, Sweden, and Denmark," he said, commenting on the version of the involvement of the governments of Poland and Ukraine in the explosions.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that Western officials do not rule out the involvement of the governments of Poland and Ukraine in explosions at the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, and neither Europe nor NATO are eager to get to the bottom of this sabotage investigation.
"Everything is very clear in my opinion - even outsiders understand that no Ukrainian groups can have deep-sea operations forces. In any case we will seek the truth," he added.
Earlier 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."