Russia will not let Denmark suppress truth about Nord Stream sabotage: Zakharova

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russia slammed Denmark over its lack of response to Moscow’s requests concerning an investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline explosions, warning it will not allow Copenhagen to “sweep the issue under the rug.”

“As of today, Danish authorities have yet to respond in a meaningful way to any of the numerous requests Russian authorities have made about the investigation into the blasts or provided a single result of their investigation, this despite the fact that it is Russia as the owner of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines that is the aggrieved party,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

Zakharova said that Denmark has also not replied to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s letter addressed to his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen in October 2022 which proposed letting government representatives and Russian gas giant Gazprom join the investigation into the blasts.

“Despite the Danish refusal to hold a joint investigation into these sabotage attacks, the Russian Foreign Ministry will continue to insist that Copenhagen provide answers to the questions that were asked earlier. It will not be able to sweep this issue under the rug,” she noted.

Zakharova further said that Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen’s recent statements showed that Copenhagen was “not interested from the start in an investigation that could shed light” on the incident.

Rasmussen said in a press briefing last Thursday that “Denmark, Sweden and Germany all have the rule of law, and one can have confidence in our investigations.”

“We proceed from the premise that it is only a comprehensive and open international investigation with the mandatory participation of Russian representatives that can provide the public with reliable and objective data on the reasons, perpetrators and instigators of the sabotage attack,” Zakharova added.

The Nord Stream pipelines, which carried Russian natural gas to northern Germany via the Baltic Sea, were ruptured in a series of blasts on Sept. 26 last year, causing leaks in what officials from countries in the region called "likely sabotage."