WASHINGTON, Mar 29 — RIA Novosti. The US State Department was unable to comment on Washington's decision to abstain from voting in the UN Security Council on the investigation of the terrorist attacks on the Nord Stream.
“As for the Nord Stream investigations… I will have to get back to you on this issue,” Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said when asked about the US decision to abstain from voting in the Security Council.
Patel added that he would need to «check with the team» and comment on US actions later.
Earlier, the UN Security Council did not adopt a draft resolution of Russia calling on the Secretary General of the organization to create an international commission to investigate the circumstances of the undermining of the Nord Stream — due to the position of Western countries, the document did not receive nine votes out of 15. The Russian Federation, China and Brazil voted for the resolution. Other countries, including the US, abstained.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, commenting on this decision, said that Russia is disappointed with the results of the vote in the UN Security Council and will seek to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
Explosions occurred on September 26, 2022, on two Russian export gas pipelines to Europe at once — Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2. Germany, Denmark and Sweden did not rule out targeted sabotage. The Nord Stream operator Nord Stream AG reported that the state of emergency on gas pipelines was unprecedented and it was impossible to estimate the timing of repairs. The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia initiated a case on an act of international terrorism. On October 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin reported that Gazprom was allowed to inspect the site of the explosion and the head of the company, Alexei Miller, reported to him about the inspection. Putin said that the explosion on the gas pipeline is an obvious act of terrorism.
On February 8, Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh published his investigation into the Nord Stream explosions, in which, citing a source, he stated that explosive devices under Russian gas pipelines were planted in June 2022 under the cover of the Baltops exercises by US Navy divers during support of Norwegian specialists. According to Hersh, the decision to launch the operation was made by US President Joe Biden after nine months of discussions with administration officials involved in national security issues. Later, the Pentagon said that the United States had nothing to do with the blowing up of Russian gas pipelines last year.