Media Leaks Come From Those Who Do Not Want Legal Probe Into Pipeline Sabotage - Moscow

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th March, 2023) Leaks to the Western media about the Nord Stream attacks are made by those who do not want to conduct a legal investigation and plan to divert the attention of the audience from the facts, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, the New York Times reported citing US officials that new intelligence suggested that a pro-Ukrainian group had carried out the Nord Stream attacks. A few hours later, Germany's Zeit reported that investigators had identified the vessel from which the Nord Stream sabotage had been committed.

"I wonder who allows such leaks, filling the media scene with them? The answer is: those who do not want to conduct an investigation in the legal field and are going to divert the attention of the audience from the facts in every possible way," Zakharova said on Telegram channel, commenting on the news of Western media.

She stressed that the Western regimes involved in the incident should respond to the official requests of the Russian side and take into consideration the materials of the journalistic investigation of US journalist Seymour Hersh, without replacing them with anonymous bogus stories.

On February 8, Pulitzer prize winner Seymour Hersh published his investigation into the Nord Stream explosions, in which, citing a source, he stated that explosive devices under Russian gas pipelines had been planted in June 2022 under the cover of Baltops exercises by US Navy divers with the support of Norwegian experts.

According to Hersh, the decision to conduct 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 told RIA Novosti that the United States had nothing to do with the explosions of Russian gas pipelines last year.