News - Lavrov: Germany must answer all questions related to explosion at Nord Stream natural gas pipelines

Germany should answer all the questions related to the explosion at the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a comment to Izvestia. "They [i.e. Germany] should stop categorically refusing to present facts that they could not but reveal. When at least some of the information we request is not provided through official channels, but appears in newspaper materials (and simultaneously in three German and American periodicals), this suggests that everything is staged,” the Russian FM noted. “The operation was conceived in order to somehow divert public opinion in Germany and the world from the real authors, executors, and orderers of the terrorist act. We will insist on conducting a transparent international investigation," Lavrov said. Also, the Russian FM noted that it is shameful for Germany to silently come to terms with the notion that it was deprived of the long-term basis of energy and economic well-being. "For many decades it has been the key to Germany's development, dependent on stable supplies of Russian [natural] gas at reasonable prices. Berlin ‘swallowed’ everything silently, without comment. Now we see attempts to put the blame on some officers drinking with businessmen, and allegedly they hired someone, or decided to learn diving themselves. It's not serious. Even if one of the persons [i.e. the Ukrainians] mentioned in the German press were somehow involved [in the aforesaid explosion], it is clear that they could not have done it alone. In order to carry out such a terrorist attack, an order came from the ‘topmost.’ And for the West, the  ‘topmost’ is Washington," Lavrov added.