The Kremlin said Tuesday that the probe into the blasts that ripped through the Nord Stream gas pipelines was “tailored” to blame Russia.
Explosions in early September spurted natural gas from pipelines on the bottom of the Baltic Sea, causing a major environmental disaster that further exacerbated geopolitical tensions over energy supplies.
“From statements we hear from Germany, France and Denmark, this investigation is a priori tailored to blame Russia. That’s absurd,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Moscow has accused Western countries of being behind the explosions in the pipelines being built to carry Russian gas to Germany, while Ukraine has blamed Russia.
“Russia would not blow up its own pipeline,” Peskov said.
“We can only express our regret that this entire investigation is taking place in a very, very closed framework … without the involvement of the Russian side, which co-owns this pipeline,” he added.
Moscow previously expressed “confusion” over its exclusion from an inquiry into the incident and launched its own probe.
“We have no way of conducting our own investigations on the ground,” Peskov said Tuesday, but investigators from the Russian intelligence services are “doing their job.”
Denmark said last week that its investigation, which it is conducting with Sweden and Germany, is making “good progress”.
Swedish authorities had previously said an inspection of the blast site had increased suspicions of sabotage.
At least 50 meters of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been destroyed or buried under the seabed, images from the Swedish newspaper Expressen showed on Tuesday.
The pipelines have been at the center of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut off gas supplies to Europe in alleged retaliation to Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Although the pipelines were not operating at the time of the blast, they were still filled with natural gas, or methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas.