Swedish and Danish authorities are investigating four holes in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that link Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea and have become a flashpoint in the Ukraine crisis as gas supplies to Europe are tight. Denmark last month said a preliminary investigation showed the leaks were caused by powerful explosions. “The analysis that has now been carried out shows traces of explosives in many of the recovered items,” the Swedish public prosecutor’s office said in a statement, adding that the findings proved the incident to be “major sabotage”. He said the ongoing investigation will determine whether those responsible can be identified. Cooperation with authorities in Sweden as well as in other countries was going very well, said chief prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist. The prosecutor’s office declined to comment further, including on what explosives are believed to have been used to destroy the pipelines. Russia will wait until a full assessment of the damage is done before deciding on repairs, if any, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. “The very fact that data has already started to come in, in favor of confirming a subversive or a terrorist act … once again confirms the information that the Russian side has,” Peskov said in his daily call with reporters. “It’s very important that we don’t stop, it’s very important that we find whoever is behind this explosion.” Neither Gazprom ( GAZP.MM ) nor Nord Stream 1 and 2 responded to Reuters requests for comment. Seismologists in Denmark and Sweden previously said they had recorded tremors in the immediate vicinity of the leaks and that the signals did not resemble those from earthquakes. Danish police declined to comment on the Swedish findings. The Sept. 26 subsea pipeline ruptures, spewing gas into the ocean that bubbled to the surface the following week, sparked warnings of public danger and fears of environmental damage. A section at least 50 meters (164 feet) long is missing from Nord Stream 1, Swedish newspaper Expressen reported on Oct. 18 after filming what it said were the first publicly released images of the damage. Russia’s defense ministry said last month that the British navy blew up the pipelines, a claim London said was false and meant to distract from Russian military failures in Ukraine. Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Johan Ahlander in Stockholm, Terje Solsvik in Oslo and Nikolaj Skydsgaard in Copenhagen Editing by Elaine Hardcastle Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
