The Swedish government’s investigation into the “detonations” that damaged the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines is expanding on any possible involvement of a state actor, the prosecutor overseeing the investigation told Russian state media and Reuters.
The Swedish prosecutor’s office said in a press release on Thursday that “analyses of objects seized during crime scene investigations show traces of explosives in several of the foreign objects that were examined.” He called the September 2022 incidents “detonations” and said both pipelines one and two of the mostly Russian-owned Baltic Sea gas carrier had been hit.
Mats Ljungqvist, who is overseeing the investigation being carried out by the Swedish Security Service as a prosecutor in the National Security Unit, said in the report that “about the incident, there is no doubt that it is a serious sabotage in international waters targeting infrastructure. the owner is not connected to Sweden”.
Russian state-owned Gazprom owns 51 percent of the two pipelines that stretch a total of 760.56 miles (1,224 kilometers) between exporter Russia and destination Germany. Germany’s PEGI/E.ON and Wintershall Dea AG each hold a 15.5 percent stake, and Dutch NV Nederlandse Gasunie and France’s ENGIE hold nine percent each, according to the Swiss-based owner. The twin Nord Stream pipeline systems have, according to Nord Stream AG’s website, a combined annual capacity of about 1.94 trillion cubic feet (55 billion cubic meters) of gas. This capacity is, as indicated on the website, “enough to meet the energy demand of more than 26 million European homes”.
The incidents in the Danish and Swedish exclusive economic zones, first reported by owner Nord Stream AG on September 26, 2022, happened about half a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said on February 8, 2023, citing an “anonymous source with direct knowledge of operational planning,” that the US had orchestrated the sabotage with help from the Norwegian navy. As Russian troops massed on the border with Ukraine and war loomed, “[U.S.] President Joseph Biden saw the pipelines as a vehicle for a [Russian President] Vladimir Putin to weaponize natural gas for his political and territorial ambitions,” he wrote in a blog post.
Hersh’s article said the sabotage ordered by Biden had been executed through remotely fired explosives planted in June 2022 “under cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO. [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] exercise known as BALTOPS 22”.
The White House and Pentagon denied the claims in Hersh’s article in comments to Russian state media TASS on the same day the article was published.
‘Main protagonist’
In an update on the investigation on Thursday, the Swedish prosecutor’s office said that “all seized objects and all materials have been carefully examined and analyzed.” He said no more about the objects.
The Danish Energy Agency also said on March 29, citing Denmark’s defense ministry, that local authorities had recovered an empty sea smoke buoy near pipeline two in the presence of a Nord Stream representative A.G.
The Swedish prosecutor’s office did not say anything about the identity of the alleged culprits, but Ljungqvist told TASS that the “main clue” is that a government had orchestrated the sabotage.
“We have a pretty clear picture at the crime scene of who carried it out,” Ljungqvist said in the TASS report on Thursday. “It cannot be ruled out that there are individuals who were the perpetrators. However, our main advantage is, of course, that there is a government behind us, directly or indirectly.”
He said, however, “what exactly we are working on, we cannot say; we cannot reveal any details now due to the secrecy of the preliminary investigation.”
Similarly, Ljungqvist told Reuters that “there are certain companies that have certain special missions that mean they could, in theory, carry it out. We’re not ruling anything out, but that it’s a state actor that’s directly or at least indirectly behind this is, of course, our absolute main scenario, given all the circumstances.”
He told TASS that Stockholm still does not see the need to cooperate with Moscow in looking into the incident, which Putin described on December 22 as a “terrorist attack” by state actors.
“We will gladly cooperate if we see that there is a need. But in this case, we don’t see it,” Ljungqvist was quoted as saying by TASS. “In principle, we have a positive attitude towards cooperation, but in the preliminary investigation we do not focus on those who committed the act of sabotage.”
“The most important thing for us is to rule out that Sweden is somehow used as a platform for this act of sabotage.”
He declined to comment on Hersh’s report that the sabotage was an American operation, TASS said.
“Based on facts”
Ljungqvist noted in the Swedish Tax Authority’s report that “there is a variety of information and reports about sabotage against gas pipelines. Obviously, the incident has become an open space for different attempts of influence”.
“These speculations have no impact on the ongoing investigation, which is based on facts and information that has emerged from analysis, crime scene investigations and collaboration with authorities in Sweden and other countries,” has added
“We are carrying out a series of specific investigative precautions. We are working without conditions and turning every stone without leaving anything to chance”, continued the prosecutor.
He said the investigation hopes to uncover the culprit, but “it will probably be difficult given the circumstances.”
Call for UN investigation
Before the Swedish remarks, Putin said at a ceremony for 17 foreign ambassadors, including Denmark’s Jakob Henningsen, “today, the Baltic Sea is literally irregular. First of all, I will mention the acts of sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipelines and Nord Stream 2 in September 2022”.
“Mr. Ambassador, we hope that Denmark will support our proposals to establish an independent international commission to investigate all the circumstances of these incidents,” Putin said at the Kremlin event, according to a presidential transcript.
The United Nations Security Council on March 27 rejected Russia’s request for an investigation into the incidents with only China, Brazil and Russia voting in favor. The monthly rotating presidency of the council is now held by Moscow.
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