Swedish investigators have been unable to bring charges for the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines and discontinued the case, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Saturday.
In response, Moscow hit back, claiming an "international conspiracy."
"We are talking about an international conspiracy to conceal a serious crime — a terrorist attack. And Stockholm has an appropriate role in this mutual responsibility," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"Let me remind you that the crime was committed in the special economic zone of Sweden. And the reason for such legal apathy is that the main beneficiary of the terrorist attack is the Biden administration, which did not hide the relevant plans. Stockholm has neither the right nor the will to object to the US," she wrote on her social media.
In February, Swedish Public Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist announced the termination of the national probe into the Nord Stream explosions, ruling that the case does not fall under the country's jurisdiction. Stockholm handed materials to Germany for further investigation, he added.
"We had a formal investigation, because it happened not on Swedish territory but in the Swedish economic zone. That was pretty traditionally done, and they concluded they could not blame someone for this. They didn’t have a case. So for us it’s closed," Kristersson said in an interview with the Time magazine.
The Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines were built to deliver gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. They were hit by explosions in September 2022 and Nord Stream's operator, Nord Stream AG, said that the damage was unprecedented and it was impossible to estimate the time repairs might take.
Russia considers the explosions of the two pipelines an act of international terrorism. Moscow has requested that the materials of the case be handed over several times, but to no avail, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.