Russia Insists on a transparent probe Into the Nord Stream terror attack amid recent "media leaks," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated.
It is necessary to identify those who carried out and ordered the attack, to allow Russia to participate in the probe, Peskov added.
Weighing in on earlier media reports suggesting that a "pro-Ukrainian" businessman had partaken in the attacks, the official said that this version was hard to believe, noting that "this is too difficult a task, which, probably, could only be handled by well-trained special service."
"First of all, of course, you see the synchronous release of materials in different countries, you see that the Anglo-Saxons, whom we spoke about at the very beginning, are fussing, they are clearly embarrassed because of this terrorist attack in relations with the Germans, this is obvious," Peskov told reporters.
On March 7, the New York Times reported, citing US officials, that new intelligence suggested involvement of a certain "pro-Ukrainian group" in the Nord Stream sabotage. At the same time, the US officials reportedly said there was no proof of the Kiev regime's leadership being involved in the operation. Furthermore, a UK media outlet said that Western intelligence agencies investigating the blasts were looking into the possible involvement of a prominent Ukrainian businessman in the attack.
Feeding further into the stream of "new information" pertaining to the Nord Stream infrastructure blasts, a German newspaper reported, citing investigators, that the attacks last September had been carried out by six people of unknown nationality with the use of a boat rented from a Poland-based firm, apparently owned by two Ukrainians.
On Wednesday, the freshly-surfaced media reports were slammed by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as an inherent part of the coordinated spread of disinformation and an attempt to divert attention from the real perpetrators.
"Obviously, the authors of the terrorist attack want to divert attention. This is obviously a coordinated spread of disinformation in the media," Peskov told Sputnik.
The current batch of reports stemming from “new intelligence reviewed by US officials” comes on the heels of recent evidence pointing the finger of blame for the blasts firmly at Washington unearthed by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist revealed that US Navy divers had planted explosives to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines during NATO's Baltops exercises in the summer of 2022. Norway activated the bombs three months later at the behest of US President Joe Biden, the journalist wrote, citing insiders.
On September 26, 2022, underwater blasts targeted three of the four strings of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 underwater pipelines, built to carry a combined 110 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe annually. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden launched separate investigations into the incident, while Russia was not granted access to their probes.
Moscow will do its utmost to make the Nord Stream probe happen, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik earlier.
"You remember how the West reacted to the investigation into Nord Stream published by Seymour Hersh - their nervous reaction. They started saying it's nonsense and that they were not even going to discuss it. I think this makes everything clear. But we will do our best to make this investigation happen, we will not allow them to just sweep it all under the rug," Lavrov stressed.