COPENHAGEN: Denmark has dropped an investigation into the 2022 explosions on the Nord Stream pipeline that carries Russian gas to Germany, police said on Monday, becoming the second country to do so after Sweden closed its own investigation.
The multibillion-dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines carrying gas under the Baltic Sea were ruptured in September 2022 by a series of explosions in the Swedish and Danish economic zones, releasing massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere.
The explosions came seven months after Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine that triggered a wide range of Western economic and financial sanctions against Moscow.
“The investigation led the authorities to the conclusion that there was deliberate sabotage of the gas pipelines. However, the assessment is that there are insufficient grounds to initiate criminal proceedings in Denmark,” Copenhagen police said in a statement.
Sweden dropped its investigation into the explosions earlier this month, saying it had no jurisdiction in the case, but handed over the uncovered evidence to German investigators, who have so far released no findings.
The German government is still “very interested” in getting to the bottom of the explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream gas pipelines, a spokesman in Berlin said on Monday.
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Last year, Germany told the UN Security Council that it had found traces of underwater explosives on a sailing vessel that could have been used to transport explosives, and that trained divers could have attached the explosives to the pipeline.
Russia and the West, at odds over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, have been pointing fingers at each other over pipeline explosions. Each denied any involvement and none claimed responsibility.
The Kremlin said on Monday that the situation regarding the investigation was “almost absurd”.
“On the one hand, there was an acknowledgment of deliberate sabotage, on the other hand, there was no further progress,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Denmark had refused requests for information about its investigation.
The Danish prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on Peskov’s claim.
Danish police said they were working with relevant foreign partners and that the investigation they were conducting was “comprehensive and comprehensive”.
A police spokesman declined to comment when asked by Reuters to specify why there were insufficient grounds to continue the investigation and to which authorities they had disclosed their findings.
Danish police had previously said that the pipeline had been hit by powerful explosions, and Swedish investigators confirmed that traces of explosives found at the site strongly indicated sabotage had taken place.
Russia has blamed the United States, Britain and Ukraine for the explosions, which have largely cut off Russian gas from the lucrative European market. These countries refused to participate.
Some Western officials said Russian naval vessels were in the area at the time of the explosions. Others said there was no clear evidence implicating Moscow, calling the suggestion it was behind the attacks “absurd”.
