Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Germany's reaction to the explosion of the "Nord Stream" lines shows that it is still "occupied", while a senior Russian diplomat stated that his country had not been informed of the progress of investigations regarding the bombings of the "Nord Stream" pipelines last year. .
Putin added, in an interview with Russian television, that European leaders have been intimidated into losing their sense of sovereignty and independence.
"The thing is that European politicians declared for themselves that Germany was never a fully sovereign country after the Second World War," Russian news agencies quoted Putin as telling state TV channel Rossiya-1.
"The Soviet Union withdrew its forces at one point and ended what amounted to an occupation of the country. But that, as you know, was not the case with the Americans. They are still occupying Germany," he added.
On the programme, Putin said the bombings were carried out "on a state level" and deplored the suggestion that an independent, pro-Ukrainian group was responsible for the bombing, calling it "complete nonsense".
Western countries, including Germany, have been cautious in their response to investigations into explosions that hit Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, saying the explosion appeared to be deliberate, but declined to say who they believed was responsible.
The pipelines were intended to transport Russian gas to Germany, but Berlin has taken steps to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels since Moscow's war with Ukraine began a year ago.
Officials in Berlin were cautious about who was responsible for the bombings, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius saying last week that the bombings may have been an attack that suggested someone else "blamed Ukraine".
The course of the investigations
In the same context, a senior Russian diplomat said, on Tuesday, that his country had not been informed of the progress of investigations into the explosions in the Nord Stream pipelines last year, and that Moscow had handed over a report confirming this to the United Nations.
Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's deputy delegate to the United Nations, said Russia had prepared an "official document" based on its correspondence with Denmark, Sweden and Germany, and provided copies of it to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly.
He also wrote on the Telegram platform, "The documents allow our colleagues in the United Nations to verify that allegations that these countries have informed us of the progress of their investigations are incorrect."
Explosions occurred on September 26 at the two pipelines connecting Russia and Germany in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark.
Denmark, Germany and Sweden told the Security Council in a joint letter in February that "the Russian authorities have been informed regarding investigations" by their national authorities.