Russia slams Denmark over Nord Stream investigation ‘fraud’

Russia has slammed Denmark for not giving Moscow access to investigations about the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, describing an earlier probe on this matter as a fraudulent "scam".

“This is such a fraud, a total scam, not even a con but a threepenny game, which in my opinion no one has been buying for a very long time,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday in an interview with Rossiya-1.

Zakharova said the sabotage of multiple-billion-dollar Nord Stream gas pipelines was not a trivial matter that could easily be forgotten.

“They are playing this for themselves, but the story with Nord Stream will not end the same way as many other stories they have buried or covered up, I think, for the simple reason that there’s a lot of money at stake,” Zakharova noted.

Russia's UN mission has asked the United Nations for an impartial international investigation into the sabotage of the multiple-billion dollar Nord Stream gas pipelines built by Russia to transfer gas to Europe.

Russia calls for international probe after Seymour Hersh report on Nord Stream blasts

Russia has called for an international investigation after a new report by famous American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh alleged that the United States was behind Russian Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions.

Meantime, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen had announced earlier on Thursday that Russia had been denied by the country to have access to investigations about the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and had no participation in the probe. “Denmark, Sweden and Germany all have rule of law and one can have confidence in our investigations,” Rasmussen insisted, ruling out Russia's role in the probe.

A preliminary investigation by Sweden and Denmark had indicated an "intentional sabotage" operation; however, it did not determine who had planned and executed the operation.

Meanwhile, Russia has accused Copenhagen, Stockholm and Berlin of lying about claiming that they were keeping Moscow informed on the probe about the sabotage on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, providing documents to that effect to the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

The Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, told the UN Security Council that Western countries were showing no intention of cooperating with Moscow in the inquiry into the blasts.

"We have strong reasons to doubt the effectiveness, transparency, and impartiality of investigations that are being carried out under some national jurisdictions," Nebenzia said, adding, "We do not see our partners being eager to cooperate."

The multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline projects were built by Russia under the Baltic Sea to deliver natural gas to Germany and on to Western Europe.

A series of explosions in September 2022 near the Danish island of Bornholm severely damaged the pipelines and stopped the flow of Russian gas to Europe.

US Navy bombed Nord Stream gas pipelines in covert sea operation: Seymour Hersh

The US Navy has bombed the Nord Stream gas pipelines in a covert sea operation, a famous American journalist claims.

American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed in a detailed report published on his blog last month that the US intelligence community had planned and overseen the execution of sabotage to the gas pipelines with help from Norway.

Hersh's report was dismissed by the US government as “total fiction.”

The New York Times, earlier this month, quoted unnamed US intelligence officials as claiming that a rogue “pro-Ukrainian group” may have been behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

In response, the famous American journalist said the NYT report was difficult to believe and therefore unlikely to be true.

US President Joe Biden ordered the bombing of the pipelines to make sure Germany could not change its mind about the economic sanctions slapped on Russia and weapons shipments to Ukraine, according to Hersh.

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The Chinese government has also called for an investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

Beijing, in this regard, stressed the importance of finding the truth of the matter and urged relevant sides to heed the calls of the international community for an objective, impartial and professional investigation into the bombing of the multibillion-dollar pipelines.

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