Moscow will not allow the “inconvenient truth” about what really happened to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines to be "swept under the carpet", the Russian Embassy in the United States emphasized in a statement on its Telegram channel.
Russia will continue to insist on a comprehensive and transparent investigation into the blasts targeting Nord Stream’s underwater pipelines. Furthermore, the probe should continue with Russian participation, the embassy emphasized.
The embassy applauded a recent US media investigation into the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream international gas pipelines.
“The journalists - unlike the local authorities, who 'suddenly' abandoned megaphone diplomacy and speculations in their favorite 'highly likely' style - are trying to get to the truth about the unprecedented attack on the pipeline infrastructure that took place in the Baltic Sea. We cannot but welcome such an approach,” Russia’s embassy stated.
The result of the reporters' research is profoundly inconvenient for those who obdurately continue to vilify Russia on every occasion, the envoys added, since after three months of data collection, no evidence of Russia’s alleged "involvement" has been found. This could only disappoint Russia’s detractors, it was asserted.
Pointing out that the US administration remained “eloquently” silent on the matter, the embassy was not at all surprised that those behind the recent journalistic investigation wished to remain anonymous. Attempts to step away from "hard-core Russophobia" automatically qualify as being "on the Kremlin's side" so far as the collective West is concerned," the statement said.
As for the culprits behind the sabotage, all one needs is to ask the right questions.
"Who benefited from playing the 'Russian card' for geopolitical and energy weakening of Europe? Who is the ultimate beneficiary of the pipelines’ rupture and the sale of 'alternative' energy resources? For whom was Russia’s cheap and affordable natural gas a thorn in the side? The answer is obvious,” concluded Russia’s embassy in the US.
The US report referred to by the embassy highlighted on 21 December that, “there is no evidence at this point that Russia was behind the sabotage" of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September. The report cited an unnamed European official, with the statement confirmed by 23 other diplomatic and intelligence officials in nine countries interviewed by the outlet.
After months of investigation, a number of western officials privately admit that Russia is probably not involved in the explosions, the newspaper said.
Even those who still consider Russia the prime suspect reportedly acknowledge that the attack cannot be unambiguously attributed to any one country, the report added. This is mainly explained by the fact that people familiar with the forensic examination have failed to link Moscow with the incident.
"Forensics on an investigation such as this are going to be exceedingly difficult," a senior US State Department official was quoted as saying.
Furthermore, Washington, which reportedly regularly intercepts correspondence between Russian officials and the military, has not discovered any signs of Moscow concealing its involvement in the attack, said officials. Some European representatives reportedly regret that many global leaders accused the Kremlin of the explosions, ignoring possible motives of other countries and terrorist organizations.
"The governments that waited to comment before drawing conclusions played this right," another EU official was quoted as saying by the news outlet.
At the time, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau was quick to leap to the conclusion in a local radio interview that Russia "may have damaged the pipelines to deepen the divisions in Europe on energy security."
Germany's Economy Minister Robert Habeck also suggested that “Russia saying ‘it wasn’t us’ is like saying ‘I’m not the thief'.”
Nord Stream 2
© Photo : Nord Stream 2/Axel Schmidt
According to the US investigative report, some officials supposedly believe that the Nord Stream attack could have been carried out by different entities with the use of underwater drones or surface ships. And although no one doubts that the damage was the result of premeditated actions, the report said that a number of countries, such as Norway that supplies gas via undersea pipelines to Europe, are concerned that the guilty party will never be identified.
"It's not a good thing. Whoever did it may get away with it," a Norwegian official was cited as saying.
The explosions occurred on 26 September at three of the four strings of Nord Stream 1 and 2 underwater network, built to offer a combined annual 110 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to European consumers. Germany, Denmark and Sweden all launched separate investigations into the incident, with the Swedish Security Service confirming “gross sabotage”.
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office is investigating the pipeline incidents as acts of international terrorism.
As Denmark and Sweden barred Russia from investigating the incidents, the Russian Foreign Ministry made clear that the investigation can only be considered reliable and objective if Moscow participates in it.
After a month-long investigation, the Russian Ministry of Defense revealed in late October that Britain’s Royal Navy took part in the planning, organization and execution of the Nord Stream attack.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday it appeared that no European countries were conducting a proper investigation into the series of explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September.