According to German sources, Sweden will no longer participate in a joint investigation into the Nord Stream leaks. The nation’s independent investigation is ongoing, but it doesn’t want to share its findings with other countries, according to the German magazine Der Spiegel.
Denmark and Sweden rejected Russia’s request to participate in Nord Stream one and two pipeline leaks investigations. Germany has already submitted its findings.
Sweden has said that the “safety classification of the investigation is too high” to share the result with other countries, Spiegel reports.
Because the leak occurred in international waters, Swedish prime minister Magdalena Andersson said that Russia could technically still investigate the situation independently.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the pipeline leaks are “international terrorism” to benefit the US, Poland and Ukraine. Germany, meanwhile, speculated that an act of sabotage damaged the Nord Stream system amid the escalation between Russia and Europe in the former’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
Both Russia and the US have denied responsibility.
Sweden already said its initial investigations of the Nord Stream incidents indicate sabotage.
G7 leaders expressed concern and condemned any deliberate disruption of critical infrastructure.
The incident regarding Nord Streams one and two raised international concerns and aggravated some sensitive geopolitical tensions.
A spokesperson for Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office — which investigates national security and terror attacks — revealed it’s investigating “against persons unknown” regarding suspicion of “intentionally causing an explosive blast.”
