Nord Stream saboteurs to surprise many in EU: Kremlin

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Al Mayadeen English + Agencies
22 Oct 2022 00:41
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The Kremlin Spokesperson says Moscow is facing a wall of resistance from relevant countries preventing it from joining the investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline attack.

Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov

Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that the truth behind who sabotaged Nord Stream will surprise many in the EU countries if exposed, however, so far some countries are showing unwillingness to cooperate and are preventing Russia from participating in the investigations.

"We work through diplomatic channels. It [the work] is being conducted, it is being conducted very intensively with the mentioned countries, but so far, we bump into the wall of unwillingness to somehow interact and unwillingness to get together to the truth, which will surely surprise many in these European countries if it is made public," Peskov told the reporters, adding that Russia currently lacks new information on the investigation as it is prevented from taking part in it.

A few days ago, Peskov stated that the Kremlin regrets that the investigation into the Nord Stream terrorist attack is taking place behind closed doors and without interaction with Russia.

"One can only express regret that this entire investigation process is taking place in a very, very closed mode, without admission to participation, without interaction with the Russian side, and it is a co-owner of this pipeline system," Peskov said, adding that "the way it looks from a public perspective, at least according to the statements that we hear, from Germany, from France, from Denmark — this investigation is a priori adjusted to lay responsibility on Russia. This is absurd."

Earlier in October, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova questioned the reason behind the decision not to include Moscow in the investigations.

Zakharova stated that, "this can only be explained in one way — they probably know who did it, so Moscow's opinion is simply not interesting, because the suspect has already been identified, and it is already possible to bring him to justice."

This comes after the Nord Stream gas pipelines were damaged by two explosions first, followed by a third and then a fourth, according to Danish officials during a NATO conference on September 28, with the first two caused by the force of around 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of TNT each, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing persons familiar with the case.

Investigators from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) later started a criminal investigation into the blasts dealing with it as an act of international terrorism. It is currently impossible to figure out how long it will take to restore the pipelines to operational capacity.