Those who believe in such stories are “afraid of truth” and are shielding the Kiev regime, the Russian foreign minister said
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has laughed off “ridiculous” claims by German media outlets that the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up by a small group of divers on a “little boat.”
Commenting on the issue of protecting critical energy infrastructure at a press briefing on Thursday, he said investigations into the sabotage of the Russian natural gas pipelines in 2022 had been turned into a “spectacle.”
Despite submitting numerous requests, Lavrov said Russia had still not received any information about the investigation from the German authorities, and claimed their investigation lacked transparency.
Meanwhile, Denmark and Sweden, who have also ignored all of Moscow’s requests, have stated that they had closed down their national investigations into the Nord Stream explosions, the minister noted.
“We will not abandon this topic, we will continue to seek a transparent investigation, which is being blocked in every possible way by the US, Britain and their allies,” Lavrov said.
He also ridiculed recent reports in the German media featuring theories about how the pipelines were destroyed.
“Five people were sitting around drinking, having a laugh, and decided ‘Why don’t we blow up the Nord Stream pipelines?’ They had diving skills, allegedly hired a little boat, sailed to the place where the Nord Streams were passing, went down, planted explosives and detonated them,” the minister said, describing the German reports.
“If someone can actually believe this version, then it’s only people who are afraid of the truth and are trying to protect the criminal Kiev regime in any way possible,” he suggested.
The Nord Stream pipelines, which transported Russian natural gas to Germany and other parts of Western Europe via the Baltic Sea, were sabotaged in September 2022 in a series of underwater explosions near the Danish island of Bornholm.
Russia has blamed the US for orchestrating the attack, while some Western media outlets have blamed the act on an unaffiliated “pro-Ukrainian group.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed claims that the pipelines were blown up by activists as “complete nonsense,” and has insisted that the explosions were carried out by professionals supported by “the full might of the state, which has certain technologies.”
