Sweden, Denmark and Germany will carry out investigations into the incident separately, reports the TV company ARD
Stockholm, Copenhagen and Berlin have refused to conduct a joint investigation into the alleged sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the Tagesschau news portal, owned by ARD media, reported on Friday.
According to the report, the three nations “actually wanted to investigate the destruction of the pipelines together and find out who is responsible. But that is not the case now.”
The joint investigation team of the three countries has been disbanded, according to German government sources cited in the report. Sweden was the first out due to privacy reasons, and was followed by Denmark. “Now each country will conduct its investigation separately from the others.”
On Thursday, Russia’s foreign ministry summoned the ambassadors of Germany, Denmark and Sweden over their countries’ refusal to provide access to the investigation. Moscow said it would not recognize the results of the ongoing probe into the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in late September unless its experts were allowed to participate.
If Russia’s calls for cooperation are ignored, Moscow will assume that the three European countries “have something to hide or [that] they hide the perpetrators of these terrorist attacks,” the ministry warned.
The warning comes after Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced on Monday that Stockholm will not share the results of its investigation into the Nord Stream explosions with Moscow.
Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin suggested that despite being denied access to the investigation, “we all know very well who is the ultimate beneficiary of this crime.”
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines were rendered inoperable on September 26 following a series of powerful underwater explosions off the Danish island of Bornholm.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the explosions as a “huge opportunity” for Europe “to once and for all remove dependence on Russian energy.”
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(RT.com)
Source: sn.dk