BERLIN, October 23. /TASS/. The countries investigating the explosions that ripped up the Nord Stream pipeline have not yet presented any concrete results, but Russia will continue to seek more transparency, Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev said in an interview with TASS.
"The countries investigating the incident have so far failed to provide any concrete results. Official inquiries for information are met with perfunctory replies or silence, offers of cooperation are rejected, as are calls for transparency in the investigative actions," the diplomat said. "All this raises extreme concern and reasonable questions about the objectivity and impartiality of the ongoing investigation, not only for us, but also for a number of local politicians."
The ambassador went on to say that, "It is hard to believe that, with advanced means of intelligence and technical examination at their disposal, European countries have been unable to solve the largest terrorist attack against strategic European infrastructure that took place under their noses, even though it’s been a year after it happened."
"But the fact remains that all we have today are numerous speculations and false stories in the media, designed to deflect suspicion from the true culprits and to direct public opinion down a false trail, no matter how preposterous and ridiculous it may seem. This is how we regard the attempts to put the blame on the mysterious Ukrainian scuba divers onboard a sailing yacht," Nechayev said. "We continue to insist on ensuring as much transparency as possible in the investigation of one of the largest terrorist attacks on infrastructure in history and will make every effort, including through multilateral formats, to make the truth public," he stated.
When asked about the incident that occurred on the Balticconnector pipeline between Estonia and Finland, Nechayev said that Russia was closely monitoring the situation.
"German officials so far exercise caution when commenting on the issue. But, of course, it cannot be ruled out that there will be people who will want to find a 'Russian trace' there as well," the diplomat said.
The undersea pipeline between Finland and Estonia has suspended operation due to a suspected leak. Finnish authorities told a press conference on October 10 that the damage on the pipeline, discovered in the early morning hours of October 9, was likely the result of outside activity. It has yet to be established what caused the incident and who is responsible.
The Nord Stream AG company reported on September 27 that three threads of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 offshore gas pipelines had suffered unprecedented damage the day before. Swedish seismologists later reported that two explosions had been recorded along the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office started an investigation into the case as an attack of international terrorists.