Sweden to further investigate damaged Nord Stream pipelines: Prosecutor

ANKARA

Sweden will further investigate the damages in the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, the prosecutor’s office said Friday in a statement.

“I have decided, together with the security police, to carry out a number of supplementary investigations at the crime scene,” Mats Ljungqvist, the lead prosecutor, was quoted in the statement.

“Following the request, the armed forces have decided to assist the preliminary investigation,” he added.

Ljungqvist said the armed forces have the resources and the expertise needed to investigate the crime scene “in the way we want,” adding that “all the authorities involved have a well-functioning cooperation and we are working intensively with joint forces in the ongoing preliminary investigation.”

He noted that Sweden is also working with authorities in other countries and “that cooperation also works excellently.”

“I fully understand the great interest in the ongoing preliminary investigation. But it is important ... now (to) get to work in peace and quiet,” he added.

On Sept. 26, there were leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines caused – as preliminary results of a Sweden-Denmark investigation showed – by a series of explosions believed to have been caused by intentional sabotage.

The Nord Stream pipelines have two lines each, built to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea by the Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom, which owns most of the infrastructure.

The leaks coincided with the opening of the Baltic Pipeline, delivering natural gas from the North Sea through Denmark to Poland.