Russia rejects the US version of the sabotage of gas pipelines: they want to "distract"

Russia responded on Wednesday to intelligence information released Tuesday by US government officials, and published by The New York Times, according to which it was a Ukrainian group that sabotaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines last year, in the Baltic Sea.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
08 March 2023 Wednesday 03:24
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Russia rejects the US version of the sabotage of gas pipelines: they want to "distract"

Russia responded on Wednesday to intelligence information released Tuesday by US government officials, and published by The New York Times, according to which it was a Ukrainian group that sabotaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines last year, in the Baltic Sea. For the Kremlin spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, it is a "coordinated" action to divert attention from the real perpetrators of the sabotage.

In addition, the representative of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, denied credibility to Washington, because it does not participate in the investigation of what happened.

The explosions against the two gas pipelines built to carry gas from Russia to Germany occurred on September 26, 2022, near the coasts of Sweden and Denmark. These two countries and Germany are investigating what happened. The attack damaged both branches of the first gas pipeline and one of the two branches of the second.

The New York daily and later the German newspaper Die Zeit published on Tuesday that clues about the organizers of the explosions lead to Ukraine or a pro-Ukrainian group.

Sources in the New York Times, citing information from American intelligence, said that the attack was carried out by a group of citizens of Russia and Ukraine and that neither the British nor the Americans participated. Other interlocutors of the publication pointed out that there is no evidence of Moscow's involvement in the incident.

Die Zeit made reference to the data of the investigation to affirm that a yacht rented by a Polish company that apparently belongs to two Ukrainians was used in the sabotage. In total, there were six people on the ship, but their nationality is unknown. It is also unclear who the client or sponsor was.

Moscow does not believe this information. "Obviously, the perpetrators of the attack want to divert attention. Clearly, this is coordinated information in the media," Peskov told the state agency Ria Nóvosti.

According to the Kremlin representative, US officials cannot "suggest anything" on this issue, as the US is not conducting its own investigation into the explosions.

Last year Vladimir Putin accused the "Anglo-Saxons" of being responsible for the sabotage. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that British military were involved, something London denied.

Citing an anonymous source, the American journalist Seymour Hersh, winner of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, in February attributed the sabotage to the United States, with the participation of Norway. Washington denied having anything to do with it.

From Ukraine, its Defense Minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, assured this Wednesday that his government was not involved in the explosions against the gas pipelines.

In light of the published information, Russia assured that this month it will try to get the United Nations Security Council to vote on a proposal to launch an international investigation.

The Russian delegation had already circulated a draft resolution at the UN to this end. After what was published this week, they try to give it impetus. "This shows that we are doing the right thing in pressing for a Security Council resolution to launch an international investigation led by the UN Secretary General," Dimitri Polianski, deputy ambassador to the UN Security Council, said on Twitter.

Peskov complained that Russia has so far not been allowed access to the investigation into this "monstrous crime." "Nord Stream shareholder countries and the UN must demand an urgent investigation with the participation of all who can shed light," he said.

The shareholders of Nord Stream 1 are the Russian state giant Gazprom, the German Wintershall DEA AG and E.ON, the company NV Nederlandse Gasunie (Netherlands) and the French company Engie.

The only shareholder of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is Gazprom, although it was built with financing from Wintershall DEA, Engie, the Austrian OMV, the British Shell and the German Uniper.