Russia complains to Germany over Nord Stream sabotage probe

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia has complained to Germany over its investigation into the 2022 explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the RIA state news agency reported on Monday, after a key suspect escaped arrest in Poland.

German media reported last week that German prosecutors had identified a Ukrainian diving instructor as a suspect in the Nord Stream sabotage attack and had issued a warrant to arrest him in Poland.

Poland received the German warrant but the suspect had already left the country as Germany did not include his name in a database of wanted persons, Polish prosecutors told Reuters.

Moscow believes the German investigation will be closed without identifying those responsible, RIA cited Oleg Tyapkin, the head of the European department at the Russian foreign ministry, as saying.

“We have raised the issue of Germany and other affected countries fulfilling their obligations under the U.N. anti-terrorist conventions,” Tyapkin said.

“We have officially made corresponding claims on this matter bilaterally, including to Berlin.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later told the Izvestia media outlet: “Germany must reply to all the questions.”

Germany’s prosecutor general declined to comment on the RIA report when contacted by Reuters.

A spokesperson for the German foreign ministry rejected the complaint. “We are in touch with Russian authorities,” he said, without going into detail on the ongoing probe.

The multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines transporting gas under the Baltic Sea were ruptured by a series of blasts in September 2022, seven months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts. Russia has repeatedly said the attack was carried out by the United States and Britain, both of whom have denied this.

Lavrov, without providing evidence, said that it was ultimately Washington that issued the order to blow up the pipelines.

The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal have reported that Ukraine – which has repeatedly denied involvement – was behind the attack.

Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said such reports were meant to divert public attention from the real perpetrators of the “terrorist act”.

“It is a shame for Germany to simply silently accept how it was deprived of the long-term basis of energy, and therefore economic prosperity, which was the key to its development for many, many decades in the form of a stable supply of Russian gas at reasonable prices,” he said.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, additional reporting by Rachel More in Berlin and Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Michael Perry, Mark Heinrich and Alex Richardson)