MOSCOW, February 26. /TASS/. Denmark has ended its investigation into explosions at the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, while simultaneously admitting the fact of sabotage at the facility.

Sweden stopped investigating the case on February 7. Currently, only Germany and Russia continue to investigate the explosion.

TASS has collected the basic information about the proceedings in the case.

Denmark’s decision

On Monday, Denmark announced a decision to stop further investigation into the explosions. As the Danish police stated, the investigation "has led the authorities to conclude that there was deliberate sabotage of the gas pipelines," but "the assessment is that there are not sufficient grounds to pursue a criminal case in Denmark."

In December 2023, Russia received from the Danish side a refusal to provide legal assistance in the investigation of the terrorist attacks on Nord Stream. Commenting on this decision, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said that it did not cause surprise, but only confirmed Denmark’s course of concealing the truth about the true masterminds of the terrorist attacks.

Moscow's reaction

The situation with Denmark’s termination of the investigation is "bordering absurd," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. According to him, "one can only express absolute astonishment," when, on the one hand, they declare deliberate sabotage, and on the other, "no movement forward."

Russia will continue to monitor the investigations into the sabotage on the Nord Stream and do all it can to obtain data about them, Peskov noted.

Further investigation

The German government continues to be interested in investigating sabotage acts at Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, Cabinet Spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann said at a briefing after the report of investigation being halted by the Danish police.

On February 7, the Swedish prosecutor's office announced the termination of the investigation into sabotage at Nord Stream. Stockholm stated that Swedish jurisdiction does not extend to the incident and transferred the available data to Berlin, which continues to study the circumstances of the terrorist attack on the pipelines.

Earlier, the Swedish prosecutor's office announced the termination of the investigation into sabotage at Nord Stream. It was noted that the main goal of the preliminary investigation was to find out whether Swedish citizens were involved in the explosions and whether the kingdom could be used as a platform for sabotage. The investigation did not reveal anything indicating a connection between Sweden and the incident in the Baltic Sea, for this reason Stockholm concluded that Swedish jurisdiction does not extend to this situation.

The Swedish authorities transferred the available data to Berlin, which continues to study the circumstances of the terrorist attack on the pipelines. However, Germany does not share the details of its probe with Moscow either.

Terrorist attacks on Nord Streams

On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported unprecedented damage that occurred the day before on three strings of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipelines. On September 26, 2022, Swedish seismologists registered two explosions on the pipeline routes. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office launched a criminal case based on charges of international terrorism.

Germany, Denmark and Sweden announced their own national investigations into the gas pipeline explosions, but refused to involve Russia in them.

The fact that sabotage had occurred was confirmed by Swedish intelligence services on November 18, 2022. Traces of explosives were found at the site of the explosions.

On February 8, 2023, US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article that claimed, citing anonymous 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 that the Norwegians then 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 national security advisers.

On March 7, The New York Times reported, citing American officials, that a certain "pro-Ukrainian group" that acted without the knowledge of the US authorities could have committed the sabotage on the gas pipelines. The German publication Zeit came out with an article stating that German investigators had identified the vessel used by the saboteurs. The company that rented it allegedly belonged to Ukrainian citizens and was registered in Poland.

On February 9, in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that sabotage on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines was carried out by US intelligence services.