The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman responds to leaks about the Nord Stream pipeline recently made by the newspapers 'The New York Times' and 'Zeit'. The two media outlets reveal that behind the Nord Stream explosions is allegedly a pro-Ukrainian group.
"Western media are trumpeting the news that the investigation into the Nord Stream bombings has given grounds to believe that a) it is not Russia; and b) it is Ukrainian groups," Maria Zakharova said.
"I wonder who allows such leaks to fill the news space. The answer: those who do not want to conduct an investigation in a legal sphere, and are going to divert the public's attention from the facts in every possible way," the spokeswoman wrote on her Telegram channel.
"Instead of leaks, the Western regimes involved in the incident should respond to the official requests of the Russian side and, at the very least, take into consideration the materials of Hersh's journalistic investigation without replacing them with anonymous explosions."
Die Zeit' revelations
This March 7, the German newspaper Die Zeit wrote that the country's authorities have determined that those involved in the attack on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines were linked to Ukraine, but it is unknown who ordered the operation. The media outlet cites the results of information gathering by several German media outlets.
"German investigative authorities appear to have made a breakthrough in clarifying the circumstances of the attack on Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 (...), with traces pointing in the direction of Ukraine. However, investigators have not found any indication of who ordered the destruction of these facilities," the newspaper notes.
"In particular, the investigators managed to identify the boat that was probably used in the covert operation. It was a yacht rented by a company registered in Poland, which apparently belonged to two Ukrainians," the newspaper said.
"Investigators found traces of explosives on the cabin table," the newspaper noted. "According to the ARD television channel and the Zeit newspaper, Western intelligence services had already passed on to European partner services in the autumn that a Ukrainian group was responsible for the sabotage," it added.
New York Times' revelations
Earlier in the day, new intelligence data had been revealed by the U.S. daily New York Times. According to the information provided, a pro-Ukrainian group is allegedly behind the explosions at Nord Stream.
U.S. officials stated that they found no evidence that Russian authorities were involved in the attack, meanwhile they refused to disclose the nature of the intelligence information, how it was obtained, as well as the details of the evidence it contained.
Likewise, American journalist Seymour Hersh, in a conversation with Sputnik, laughed at the New York Times article, but declined to comment on it. He noted the absence of sources for the information, before ending the conversation.
The White House declined to comment on the new media data on Nord Stream sabotage and referred to an investigation conducted by European countries.
On September 26, Nord Stream 2 AG, operator of the Russian pipeline of the same name, reported a gas leak from unknown causes in one of the infrastructure's two pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm. It later transpired that the two lines of the parallel Nord Stream 1 pipeline had also been damaged.
Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service labeled the explosions as terrorist attacks and on September 30 unveiled the possession of evidence pointing to the involvement of certain Western countries. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office opened an international terrorism investigation following the damage to the two pipelines in an area of the Baltic Sea.
Germany, Denmark and Sweden did not rule out an act of sabotage.
Data from the Flightradar24 website, which displays real-time information on air traffic around the world, revealed that in early September U.S. military helicopters regularly flew over the area where the incident occurred for hours at a time.
On February 8, Pulitzer Prize-winning US journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that US military divers placed explosive charges under Russian gas pipelines during North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Baltops exercises in mid-2022.
In September, according to the journalist, Norwegians set off the explosives, causing serious damage to the pipelines connecting Russia to Germany on the Baltic Sea floor. Hersh stressed that U.S. President Joe Biden approved the sabotage after more than nine months of secret discussions with his national security team.