Swedish Security Service: Nord Stream Incident Probe Confirms Sabotage

Explosions occurred on September 26 at three of the four strings of Nord Stream 1 and 2 underwater pipelines built to carry a combined annual 110 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe. Germany, Denmark and Sweden launched separate investigations into the suspected sabotage incident.

Investigation of the site of the incident at the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines has confirmed sabotage, the Swedish Security Service has stated.

In the course of its intensive crime scene investigations carried out on the site of the detonations in the Baltic Sea, probes showed that the pipelines had been subject to gross sabotage, it was added in a statement.

The Swedish Security Service probe, headed by a National Security Unit prosecutor, had documented extensive damage to the gas pipelines resulting from the blasts, it was underscored, with a number of seizures made, including foreign items. Sabotage was confirmed after explosive residue was identified on a number of the seized and analyzed items. It was underscored that the extensive and complex ongoing probe, coupled with thorough analysis work, would allow for more definitive conclusions about the Nord Stream blasts.

Whether anyone can be suspected of, and later prosecuted for the sabotage will rest with the outcome of the investigation, the Swedish Security Service stated. A number of agencies, including the Swedish Coast Guard, the Swedish Armed Forces and the Swedish police Authority, were assisting the investigation, it added.

A rapid gas pressure drop and fuel leakage were detected along the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, the main routes to supply Russian gas to Europe, on September 26. Initial investigations by Swedish and Danish authorities had pointed toward likely sabotage. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office was prompted to investigate the incident as what the Kremlin called an “unprecedented act of state terrorism” by the West.

As Denmark and Sweden barred Russia from probing the incidents, the Russian Foreign Ministry underscored that the investigation can be considered reliable and objective only if Moscow participates in it.

After a month-long investigation, the Russian Ministry of Defense revealed in late October that Britain’s Royal Navy took part in the planning, organization and execution of the Nord Stream attack.