EU states withdraw from joint Nord Stream probe – media
Stockholm, Copenhagen and Berlin have refused to carry out a joint investigation into the alleged sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, news portal Tagesschau, 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 to find out who is responsible. But that’s not the case now.”
The three countries’ joint investigation team has been disbanded, according to German government sources cited in the report. Sweden was the first to leave due to privacy concerns, 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 grant access to the investigation. Moscow said it wouldn’t 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 take part.
If Russia’s calls for cooperation are ignored, Moscow will assume that the three European countries “have something to hide or [that] they are covering up the perpetrators of these terrorist attacks,” the ministry warned.
The warning comes after Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced on Monday that Stockholm would not share the results of its investigation into the Nord Stream explosions with Moscow.
Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin hinted that despite the denial of access to the probe, “we all know well who the ultimate beneficiary of this crime is.”
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 blasts as a “tremendous opportunity” for Europe “to once and for all remove dependence on Russian energy.”
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