Germany has opened an investigation into the explosions of the Russian gas pipelines "Nord Stream 1 and 2," while Sweden confirmed that it will not exchange the results of the investigation with Russia. On the other hand, Gazprom - the owner of the gas pipeline - revealed an old photo of a NATO mine over a pipeline "Nord Stream 1", she said.

Denmark, Sweden and Germany are investigating how the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that bring Russian gas to Germany broke, causing a gas leak in the Baltic Sea off the coasts of Denmark and Sweden last September.

The European Union and NATO assume that what happened was an act of sabotage.

In turn, the Kremlin described speculation about Russia's involvement in what happened as "stupid and absurd."

A spokesman for the German Public Prosecutor said that there are suspicions of "causing an intentional explosion through the use of explosives and unconstitutional sabotage," adding that the investigations are directed against unknown persons.

The spokesman stated that the Federal Office of the Criminal Police and the Federal Police were tasked with carrying out further investigations.

He added that there is sufficient factual evidence that the two gas pipelines were deliberately damaged by at least two explosions, explaining that the Federal Public Prosecution is responsible for the investigations due to the special importance of the case, noting that it is a violent and dangerous attack on energy supplies, which may harm external and internal security. for Germany.

The spokesman stated that he would not provide further information, saying that "quick results cannot be expected", referring to the ongoing investigations.


exclude Russia

In a related context, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said today, Monday, that her country will not share the results of the investigation into the Nord Stream explosions with the Russian authorities or the Russian company Gazprom.

Sweden has previously rejected calls from the Kremlin for Russia to participate in the investigation.

A few days ago, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said that Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin sent a letter to his Swedish counterpart Andersen requesting that his country's authorities be given a role in the investigation into the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines.

The Swedish Prosecution said that the first investigations carried out by the authorities this week, at the site of the leak on the gas pipelines "Nord Stream 1 and 2" in the Baltic Sea, reinforce the suspicions of "sabotage act by means of explosions that caused severe damage."

"We can see that there were explosions near Nord Stream 1 and 2 in the Swedish exclusive economic zone, which caused significant damage to the gas pipeline," said Mats Ljungqvist, the Swedish special prosecutor in charge of the investigation.

The Swedish prosecutor in charge of the investigation added - in a statement - that the investigations at the site of the accident reinforced the suspicion of serious acts of sabotage.

Evidence has been seized on site and will be examined.

Gazprom published a photo of a NATO mine destroyer that it discovered in 2015 over Nord Stream 1 (Russian press)

Russian accusations

On the other hand, Russia's Gazprom, the operator of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, said on Monday that it had carried out a controlled operation to reduce pressure in one of the two gas pipelines as a safety measure.

She added that the pressure in Line B has been reduced to approximately 50 bar, noting that there are more safety steps but it depends on the results of the pipeline survey and discussions with the relevant authorities.

Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov said that one of the company's maintenance teams discovered on November 6, 2015, during an inspection of the gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 NATO's mine destroyer "Sea Fox", which was between the lines.

So far, there has been no response from NATO to the Russian company's accusations.

Kupriyanov added in press statements that the principle of the destroyer's work is simple, as it is capable of detonating mines, that is, it is capable of detonating the pipeline.

Kupriyanov indicated that the mine destroyer "Sea Fox" infiltrated directly under the Nord Stream 1 line, at a depth of 40 meters at the "651 km" point, and was discovered and neutralized by the Swedish Armed Forces.

A Gazprom spokesman published photos that he said were taken by maintenance teams and the Swedish army during inspections at the scene in 2015, saying that the mine destroyer "Sea Fox" is usually lowered from a warship.

He stressed that this works accurately, as it detects objects by scanning the bottom using sonar, meaning that the device first examines the terrain and objects on the seabed before approaching it.

According to Kupriyanov, NATO justified it at the time, saying that an expensive and very dangerous device had been lost during training exercises.