The destruction of Nord Stream pipelines was an act of international terrorism and needs to be addressed to avoid “chaos” on the high seas, Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday. Russia has accused Germany, Sweden and Denmark of a cover-up to shield the US, and said it would only trust a UN investigation.
The two pipelines carrying Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea were damaged by a series of blasts in September 2022. While Moscow has stopped short of openly accusing the US of carrying out the bombing, journalist Seymour Hersh did just that in an article published earlier this month.
Nebenzia referred to Hersh’s article and statements by multiple US officials threatening the pipeline – from president Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to “godmother of the anti-constitutional coup in Ukraine,” Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland. He also brought up the infamous tweet by former Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski and an alleged text by Liz Truss, the UK prime minister at the time – all suggesting the US and its allies had the motive, as well as means and opportunity, to destroy Nord Stream.
“We’re not going to do ‘highly likely’ here,” said Nebenzia, referring to the British accusations against Russia in the Security Council chamber in 2018. The publicly available evidence is “more than a smoking gun” that Hollywood is so fond of, but all Moscow wants is an independent international investigation into the claims in Hersh’s article, the Russian diplomat added.
The attack on Nord Stream involved explosives and qualifies as international terrorism under a convention signed in 1997, Nebenzia noted. Unless its perpetrators are found and brought to justice, the attack may well usher in an epoch when transnational undersea infrastructure becomes a legitimate target, which would cause “chaos and terrible damage to all of humanity,” he added.
According to Nebenzia, Russia does not trust the investigations currently conducted by Sweden, Denmark and Germany, as they all refused to share their findings or outright ignored Moscow’s inquiries. “It is quite clear,” he said, that they are “covering up for their American big brother.” If Western countries block Russia’s request for a UN investigation, that will “only shore up our suspicion,” he added.
Before Nebenzia addressed the Security Council, former US diplomat Rosemary DiCarlo – currently the under-secretary-general for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs – argued the world body was “not in position to verify or confirm” anything, urging everyone to “show restraint and avoid accusations that could escalate the already heightened tensions in the region.”
The Security Council also heard from professor Jeffrey Sachs and retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern, who both testified to Hersh’s bona fides. While the US government rejected Hersh’s narrative as false, it “did not offer any information contradicting Hersh’s account, and did not offer any alternative explanation,” said Sachs. He also called Nuland’s comments about Nord Stream “not at all appropriate in the face of international terrorism.”
Nord Stream blast inquiries ongoing, Denmark, Sweden, Germany tell UN
Investigations by Denmark, Germany and Sweden into explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines have not yet concluded, the three countries said on Tuesday as the U.N. Security Council met to discuss the September incident.
Russia, which called for the meeting, wants the 15-member council to ask for an independent inquiry into the blasts on the pipelines connecting Russia and Germany, which spewed gas into the Baltic Sea and worsened a European energy shortage.
Denmark, Germany and Sweden told the Security Council in a joint letter that the "Russian authorities have been informed regarding the ongoing investigations" by their national authorities, which had so far established that the damage to the pipelines was caused by "powerful explosions due to sabotage."
"These investigations have not yet been concluded. At this point, it is not possible to say when they will be concluded," the letter said. "The authorities of Denmark, Germany and Sweden have been in dialogue regarding the investigation of the gas leaks, and the dialogue will continue to the relevant extent."
They said the consequences from the leaks in terms of greenhouse gas emissions were "substantial and worrisome."
Russia has asked U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs, of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, to brief the Security Council at Tuesday's meeting.
Moscow has maintained, without providing evidence, that the West was behind the blasts affecting the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines - multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects that carried Russian gas to Germany.
"There is no doubt about the motive of the crime, nor its perpetrator, nor the way in which the crime was committed," Russia's UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told the Security Council, according to RIA news agency.
"This is even more than the smoking gun that all American detectives dream of finding in Hollywood blockbusters."
Earlier this month, the White House dismissed a blog post by a U.S. investigative journalist alleging the United States was behind explosions as "utterly false and complete fiction."
Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, has said the aim was to put the proposal for an independent inquiry to a vote at the Security Council by the end of the week. A council resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, Britain, France, China or Russia to pass.
Russia's TASS news agency reported that China's permanent representative to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, told the Security Council that Beijing supports Moscow's call for the inquiry.
A vote could coincide with meetings of the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council to mark the first anniversary of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The 193-member General Assembly is likely to vote on Thursday to again demand Moscow withdraw its troops and call for a halt to hostilities.
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