Russia Shocked at Impunity Over Nord Stream Sabotage, Lavrov Says at G20

Russia's top diplomat arrived in New Delhi earlier this week to take part in the G20 Foreign Ministers' summit and hold a number of bilateral and multilateral meetings on the sidelines of the event.

Russia is shocked at impunity over the Nord Stream sabotage in the area of NATO and EU's responsibility, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday, addressing the G20 ministerial meeting in New Delhi.

"We are witnessing the degradation of international economic relations provoked by the West, their transformation into a weapon, including in the energy sector. [...] We insist on a fair and swift investigation into the terror attack with involvement of Russia and others concerned," he said.

The foreign minister stressed that Russia advocates for energy security and highlights the importance of granting all countries in need access to affordable energy resources.

Previously, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia said that Russia's Western partners on the UN Security Council were not showing any desire to cooperate in an independent investigation to verify a report that presented significant details that the United States was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines.

The investigative report was published by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, who revealed that US Navy divers had planted explosives to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines during NATO Baltops exercises in the summer of 2022. Norway activated the bombs three months later at the order of US President Joe Biden, the journalist wrote, citing insiders.

In September 2022, underwater blasts occurred at three of the four strings of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 underwater pipelines built to carry a combined 110 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe annually. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden launched separate investigations into the incident, while Russia wasn't given access to their probes.

'Buried' Grain Deal & West's Selfish Policy

During his speech, Russia's top diplomat took a moment "to apologize to the Indian presidency and colleagues from the countries of the global South for the indecent behavior of a number of Western delegations, who turned the work on the G20 agenda into a farce in an attempt to shift responsibility for failures in economic policy on others, primarily on Russia."

The minister continued by saying that the West has "shamelessly buried" the grain deal initiated by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, as he highlighted the obvious obstacles to the export of Russian agricultural products around the world, no matter how the EU tries to convince everyone otherwise.

"Today, the lion's share of grain supplies from Ukraine goes at dumping prices for fodder to the European Union, not to the poorest nations. [...] Consignments of free cargo of Russian fertilizers, in particular for Africa, are still blocked at European ports," he explained.

The minister also called for putting an end to illegitimate sanctions, any form of violation of the freedom of international trade, market manipulation, arbitrary introduction of price ceilings and other attempts to appropriate foreign natural resources.

Nonetheless, Lavrov expressed hope that the G20 summit, which will be held in the Indian capital in September 2023, will partially alleviate the risks posed to economic stability by the West's "selfish policy."

"We will continue to make a significant contribution to ensuring economic stability. We are open to an equal dialogue in the G20. We hope that the Delhi summit in September this year will at least partially mitigate the risks posed by the selfish policy of the West," Lavrov said at the meeting.

On July 22, the deal brokered by Turkiye and the United Nations was signed by Russia and Ukraine in order to unblock shipments of grain, food and fertilizer in the Black Sea despite hostilities. The agreement was initially set to expire on November 19, with a possibility of extension if signatories consent. It was extended for 120 days on November 17.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that most vessels carrying Ukrainian grain do not reach the world's poorest countries and have ended up in Europe instead. Putin has also voiced concerns that Russian grain and fertilizer products are not entering the global markets as stipulated by the agreement.