The Kremlin stressed that Sweden’s announcement of the discovery of «traces of explosives» in the Nord Stream pipeline after the leaks detected in September «reconfirms Russian information», while stressing that it is «very important» to locate «those who were behind this explosion».
«The fact that data have started to arrive confirming sabotage or a terrorist act, call it what you will, confirms once again the information that Russia had and has», said the spokesman of the Russian Presidency, Dimitri Peskov, who asked to «wait for a full assessment of the damage» suffered by the gas pipeline.
«We have to analyze the data before the experts adopt a conclusion on the possibility of recovering it», he explained, before indicating that Moscow «will be patient». Thus, he pointed out that Sweden and Denmark «cannot take any decision» on the reactivation of gas shipments through Nord Stream.
In this sense, Peskov emphasized that these countries «are not directly related to the operations or technical details» of the pipeline, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
Hours earlier, the Swedish prosecutor investigating the incident, Mats Ljungqvist, detailed that the investigations into the leaks detected in September in Nord Stream have found «traces of explosives», which confirms the thesis that the pipeline was the object of «blatant sabotage».
Nord Stream’s operator, Nord Stream AG, said after the September events that the damage to three of the pipelines was «unprecedented», following a gas leak in one of the sections of Nord Stream 2 and a loss of pressure in Nord Stream 1.
Authorities in Germany, Denmark and Sweden have excluded Russia from investigations into what happened, leading to a formal protest from Moscow, which has warned that it will not recognize the outcome of any report in which it was not involved.
