"From January 18 to January 20, 2023, federal prosecutors searched the ship in connection with its suspicious lease. There is a suspicion that the ship in question could be used to transport explosive devices that exploded on September 26, 2022, on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea," the prosecutor's office said.
At the moment, the evaluation of the seized material evidence and traces is ongoing, the identity of the perpetrators and their motives are also the subject of ongoing investigations, it said.
"There is currently no reliable evidence on this matter, especially on the issue of state control," the office emphasized.
As part of further investigations, the prosecutor's office will follow all leads to find out the facts.
"There are no suspicions regarding the employees of the German company that leased the ship," it added.
"There are no suspicions regarding the employees of the German company that leased the ship," it added.
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported citing US intelligence that a pro-Ukrainian group, whose plans were not necessarily known in Kiev, was behind the explosions at the Nord Stream pipelines. Later, a German newspaper reported that traces of the attack on the pipelines led to Ukraine.
However Kremlin has urged to be cautious in assessing these reports and suggested that the true "perpetrators of the terror attack want to divert attention" by blaming pro-Ukrainian paramilitaries. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that Russia is still prevented from taking part in the investigation and dubbed the recent reports as "coordinated spread of disinformation in the media."
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova joked that it wouldn't surprise her if the Western probe determines that a "dolphin-bomber" who had fled from Crimea to Ukraine was behind the Nord Stream attack.
Previously, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recalled the "nervous reaction" of Western governments to investigative journalist Seymour Hersh's report about the US involvement in the explosion at the pipelines delivering Russian gas to Europe. Russia's top diplomat stressed that such kind of response "makes everything clear."
Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize winner, published a report saying that during NATO Baltops exercises in the summer of 2022 US Navy divers planted explosives to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines, which Norway activated three months later. According to the report, US President Joe Biden decided to sabotage the Nord Streams after more than nine months of secret discussions with the national security team.
Some European officials are also skeptical about accusations that pro-Ukrainian militants played a role in the sabotage of the Nordstream pipelines.
For instance, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Wednesday that he had taken into account media reports of a possible Ukrainian footprint in the Nord Stream explosions but did not intend to comment on hypothetical assumptions.
"It is always interesting to read such inquiries, and I took notice of them with great attention. But we have to hold off hypothetical comments like 'what might happen if,'" Pistorius told German broadcaster.
The defense minister also said that he would not comment on the assumptions based on journalistic investigations. Pistorius proposed to wait and see whether the reports suggesting that the pro-Ukrainian groups did the sabotage at the Nord Stream pipelines "can be proved."