Berlin hopes to bring those responsible to justice “if we can catch them,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on September 14, RT reported.
Mr Scholz also insisted that “nothing was covered up in the Nord Stream sabotage investigation” – days after Russia criticised the German investigation as “completely non-transparent”.
So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the September 2022 explosion that damaged three of the four branches of the Nord Stream pipeline, which carries Russian gas to Germany and other parts of Western Europe.
“We call on all security agencies and the Federal Prosecutor General to investigate the explosions without regard to anyone,” Chancellor Scholz said at a meeting with residents in Prenzlau, Brandenburg, on September 14.
“There is nothing hidden, that is absolutely clear. We want to bring those behind this to justice in Germany if we can catch them,” Mr Scholz stressed.
Last month, several German news agencies reported that authorities had issued the first arrest warrant in the case, allegedly for a Ukrainian citizen identified as “Vladimir Z.”
A few months after the Nord Stream explosion, Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh, citing whistleblowers and other reliable sources, alleged that the operation was carried out by American divers, under the guise of NATO's BALTOPS 22 exercise.
Moscow has not publicly accused Washington but noted that the United States benefits most from the disruption of cheap Russian gas supplies to the economic powerhouse of the European Union.
However, according to information promoted by Western media immediately after Hersh's revelation, the explosions were believed to have been carried out by a small group of pro-Ukrainian commandos.
The men are alleged to have chartered a yacht to the Nord Stream pipeline site and dived to plant explosives. The CIA and its European partners, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, were reportedly kept in the dark.
However, recently, the Wall Street Journal claimed that Mr. Zelensky knew about and approved this activity, then changed his mind and tried to stop it but failed.
Commenting on Germany's ongoing investigation into the Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on September 12 that Berlin has not shared any information with Moscow despite receiving numerous requests.
Mr Lavrov described the investigation as completely non-transparent and dismissed claims that “six individuals carried out the sabotage on impulse” as unbelievable.
“If anyone can really believe this version, it is only those who are afraid of the truth,” Lavrov said. The foreign minister affirmed that Russia will continue to demand a transparent investigation, “which is being prevented by the United States, the United Kingdom and their allies.”
