BERLIN: Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev said all of Moscow’s initiatives regarding the investigation into the sabotage of t...
BERLIN: Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev said all of Moscow’s initiatives regarding the investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines were ignored.
"Exactly three years have passed since terrorist acts were committed against the Nord Stream pipelines. For three years, the global community has not been informed about the perpetrators and masterminds of the unprecedented sabotage acts against the largest element of the European gas infrastructure. Western countries, which are usually quick to pronounce baseless ‘guilty’ verdicts against Russia, remain surprisingly slow on the issue, expressing full and unconditional trust in German prosecutors, and urging to let them do their work without hindrance," the ambassador said in a comment.
The Russian diplomat went on to say that Russia, from the very outset, has insisted on an international inquiry into the attack, urging to join forces and let Russian experts take part in the investigation.
"All our initiatives were ignored. Multiple requests for legal assistance remain unanswered. This makes us doubt the objectiveness, impartiality and transparency of the ongoing investigation," the ambassador added.
He dismissed media speculations that the terror attack was committed by unidentified Ukrainian amateur divers as "unconvincing."
The diplomat also reminded that apart from huge financial losses and the destruction of pipelines which took many years to build, the attack led to the largest recorded transient anthropogenic methane emission event, and resulted in enormous environmental damage.
"Such actions must not go unpunished, no matter who committed them," the Russian ambassador said.
Nord Stream sabotage
On September 26, 2022, three strings of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipelines sustained enormous damage. The latter had not yet been put into operation. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Moscow is certain that the Nord Stream sabotage was carried out with US support. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has opened an investigation into an act of international terrorism.
The Die Zeit newspaper reported that German investigators had reportedly identified all the saboteurs behind the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines. According to a probe by Die Zeit, the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and ARD television, German law enforcement agencies have identified seven suspects and issued arrest warrants for six Ukrainian nationals, while the seventh individual died in December 2024 during military operations in eastern Ukraine. The probe also confirmed suspicions that the saboteurs could have carried out the terrorist attack with support from the Ukrainian authorities.
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