Moscow is waiting for the results of an investigation into the incident before making a decision
Release of gas emanating from a leak on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline © Getty Images / Swedish Coast Guard
Russia has not ruled out filing a claim for compensation once an investigation into the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions is complete, a Russian Foreign Ministry official has told RIA.
Asked if Moscow plans to sue over the destruction of the pipelines, Dmitry Birichevsky, the director of the ministry’s economic cooperation department, insisted that the investigation was “not over yet” as they were “still waiting for its results to be submitted to the [United Nations] Security Council.”
“After that, we will see,” he added.
Birichevsky has raised this issue before. In March, he mentioned that Russia did not rule out “the possibility of later raising the issue of compensatory damages over the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.”
The diplomat, however, has not specified from whom Russia could potentially demand such payment, or in what form or amount it should be paid.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which were built to deliver Russian natural gas to Germany, were destroyed by underwater explosions off the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022. Investigations have so far been unable to definitively single out the culprit behind the sabotage. Some have claimed that the attack was orchestrated by Kiev, while others have pointed their finger at the US.
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Earlier this month, a report by the Washington Post singled out a Ukrainian military officer by the name of Roman Chernivsky as having played a key role in the destruction of the pipelines. The outlet claimed that he had coordinated a six-person team of Ukrainian commandos who allegedly carried out the attack using a rented yacht.
Chernivsky, however, has denied the аllegations, dismissing any speculations of his involvement in the attack as “Russian propaganda.”
American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has also repeatedly called the “yacht” narrative a “red herring” planted by the US intelligence services, insisting instead that the sabotage of the pipelines was carried out by the CIA on direct orders from US President Joe Biden.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated back in March that he “fully agrees” with Hersh’s conclusions, arguing that the US benefited the most from the attack due to its position as a competing gas supplier to Europe.
