The object turned out to be a spent smoke buoy, according to the Danish energy authority
Denmark has rescued a mysterious object found next to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the Danish energy agency said on Wednesday, revealing that it turned out to be just a discarded smoke buoy.
“Investigations indicate that the object is an empty maritime smoke buoy, used for visual marking. The object does not pose a security risk.” the agency said in a statement.
The object was discovered by the pipeline earlier this month, and Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed in a TV interview that it was found during a Gazprom investigation about 30 kilometers from where the pipeline was breached in the sabotage attacks last September.
Denmark invited representatives of the pipeline operator, Nord Stream 2 AG, to participate in the salvage. At the same time, the country is refusing Russia access to the Nord Stream sabotage probe, and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen insisted that the investigations being carried out by Denmark, Germany and Sweden were sufficient given the strong “rule of law” in these countries.
The salvage of the buoy comes after the UN Security Council on Monday rejected a Russia-backed resolution calling for an international independent investigation into the pipeline blasts. The motion was supported only by Russia, China and Brazil, while 12 other members of the body, permanent and temporary, abstained from voting. Vassily Nebenzia, Moscow’s permanent representative to the UN, said after the vote that βthe suspicion [about] whoever is behind the Nord Stream sabotage will only increase.”
Last month, veteran journalist Seymour Hersh released a bombshell investigation, which alleged that the sabotage was a joint US-Norwegian operation ordered directly by US President Joe Biden. The ultimate goal of the operation was to cut off Germany from cheap energy supplies from Russia for good, and therefore cement its support in the Ukraine conflict.
Washington and Oslo have strongly denied the allegations, dismissing them as fiction, while Russia’s president said last week that he “totally agree” with Hersh’s conclusions.