Russia has evidence of US and UK involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. And the publication of the said evidence will depend on the development of the situation - TASS quoted Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.
Ms. Zakharova made this comment when answering a question about data collected by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).
"This evidence is real. Whether we will publish it or not - which will also tell you what kind of evidence it is - will depend on how the situation around the investigation develops," Zakharova said.
"We have repeatedly offered to cooperate with all parties. We do so openly and through legal channels between law enforcement agencies. We have contacted them many times. We support these legal requests, both politically and publicly, but we have received no response," the spokesperson noted.
"Therefore, in my opinion, those who conduct investigations abroad (Denmark and Sweden have obviously also been investigating for a long time), but Germany must be interested in exchanging documents, obtaining information and providing us with the corresponding information. We are not only ready for this, but have insisted on this," the spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed.
"We are ready to present everything we have in the investigation under the auspices of the United Nations - on our own initiative. But the West has also blocked this. Therefore, we conduct our own investigation and, of course, we have the information that Russian officials talk about, in particular, the information that SVR Director Sergey Naryshkin mentioned," Zakharova pointed out. Russia is holding solid, irrefutable evidence, she said.
Regarding how to manage evidence, the spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "We will publish evidence depending on the situation. The West has deprived itself of the ability to get information from us at will."
Earlier, SVR Director Sergey Naryshkin stated that the United States and the United Kingdom were directly involved in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. He accused professional saboteurs from Anglo-Saxon intelligence agencies of being involved in the organization, preparation and implementation of the Nord Stream explosion.
"The US administration considers it justified to carry out such destructive actions to divide Europe and above all to divide Germany from Russia," the intelligence chief said, suggesting that Washington was "uncertain" whether it could convince Berlin and other European Union (EU) countries to abandon their "extremely profitable" economic ties with Moscow.
"The US and the UK will be held responsible for this. As the old saying goes, you reap what you sow," Mr. Naryshkin concluded.
The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines were built under the Baltic Sea to transport Russian gas directly to Germany. The pipelines were disabled by powerful underwater explosions in September 2022.
