The Nord Stream pipeline explosion in September 2022 is considered a deliberate attack on important infrastructure of Germany and the European Union. The explosion paralyzed the gas pipeline carrying Russian gas to Germany and several other European countries across the Baltic Sea.
However, the culprit of the gas pipeline attack has not yet been identified, although Sweden, Denmark and Germany have launched separate investigations.
Sweden concluded its investigation into the Nord Stream case in early February. At the end of February, Denmark also announced the end of the investigation into the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion.
According to Danish officials, the explosion of the gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany was a sabotage incident but there was not enough basis for criminal prosecution. Meanwhile, Swedish officials said the case was not under the country's authority and had handed Germany "documents that could be used as evidence in the German investigation".
This has forced Germany - the economy most hit by the Nord Stream sabotage and the loss of direct gas supplies from Russia - to find the culprit of the sabotage, China Daily pointed out.
So far, neither Denmark nor Sweden nor Germany have disclosed much detail about the investigation into the Nord Stream case that has lasted for 16 months.
Russia, for its part, has called for an independent international investigation into the Nord Stream explosion.
Regarding the Nord Stream sabotage, in February last year, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh published an article based on information from an unnamed source saying the CIA was responsible for the Baltic gas pipeline explosion.
A subsequent investigation by German media outlets ARD, SWR and Die Zeit found a pro-Ukrainian group responsible for the blast. The article in The New York Times, based on intelligence assessments by US officials, also had similar conclusions.
The explosion on September 26, 2022 caused three of the four lines of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines to rupture near Bornholm, Denmark. A huge amount of gas was released into the Baltic Sea after the incident.
A month earlier, Russian energy company Gazprom had turned off the gas flow valve through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline due to a dispute over the conflict in Ukraine.
The newly completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline has not been put into operation because Germany stopped approving the project a few days before the conflict in Ukraine broke out on February 24, 2022.
The €10 billion Nord Stream 2 project has long been opposed by Ukraine, the US and Eastern European countries over concerns about Russia's influence on German energy security, according to Al Jazeera.
