France says Russia pressuring Germany's Nord Stream investigation
A French representative in the U.N. on Aug. 26 accused Moscow of putting pressure on Germany's probe into the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline explosions by calling numerous Security Council meetings.
The comments were heard during a U.N. Security Council meeting in New York called by Moscow regarding the 2022 explosions of gas pipelines running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
Criticizing such repetitive meetings as unnecessary, the French representative said that "by making the Council meet many times, the Russian Federation is putting pressure on Germany’s investigation, which is unacceptable."
In September 2022, a series of explosions damaged the Nord Stream pipelines, causing the West and Kyiv to trade blame with Russia over the suspected sabotage.
Germany, Sweden, and Denmark launched independent investigations into the incident. The latter two countries ended their probes in February 2024 and concluded that the pipelines were blown up without identifying the culprit.
Speaking at the Security Council meeting, a U.K. delegate called upon the U.N. body to respect the integrity of national investigations, saying that "attempts to politicize the process or draw premature conclusions risk undermining the credibility of the legal proceedings and the cooperation between the countries involved."
A U.S. delegate noted that the Security Council should focus its attention "on ending the war in Ukraine" rather than "an incident that took place nearly three years ago."
In turn, a Russian representative urged a meticulous investigation of what it called a "deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure" and a "terrorist act."
An envoy of China, Russia's close ally, criticized Western governments for publishing only limited information regarding their investigations, allegedly giving ground to speculations in the media.
In August 2024, German authorities issued an arrest warrant for a suspect organizer of the sabotage, a Ukrainian national named Volodymyr Z. Another Ukrainian suspect, Serhii K., was detained in Italy last week under a European arrest warrant.
German investigators did not allege that the sabotage was authorized by Kyiv, and Ukraine has denied any involvement.
The construction of Nord Stream pipelines was highly controversial even before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as critics said it increased Germany's energy dependence on Moscow.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said earlier this year that the German government would "do everything" to prevent Nord Stream 2 from being restarted. The EU's 18th package of sanctions against Russia included measures banning EU operators from engaging in any transactions regarding the pipelines.
