MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Friday that the surviving section of the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia to Germany, which were blown up three years ago, could be quickly put into service.
“The remaining line is there, it can be launched right now, in fact,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The Nord Stream system consists of two double pipelines, Nord Stream 1 (NS1) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2), running under the Baltic Sea to Germany. Only one pipeline of the four, part of NS2, remained intact after the explosions in 2022.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in May that ensuring Nord Stream 2 did not enter operation was part of efforts to increase pressure on Russia to engage in talks to end the war in Ukraine.
Peskov said Russia hoped a German-led investigation into the blasts would be completed.
Last month a Ukrainian man was arrested in Italy on suspicion of carrying out the attacks, which Russia blames directly on Kyiv. No one has taken responsibility for the blasts and Ukraine has denied any role.
Described by both Moscow and the West as an act of sabotage, the explosions on September 26, 2022 cut off a large part of Russia’s gas supplies to Europe.
Peskov on Friday repeated the Kremlin position that the United States was partially to blame for orchestrating the attacks.
“Who, let’s say, condoned this? Well, it is obvious that without the knowledge of the (Joe) Biden administration, in the U.S., such actions of the part of Ukraine and the Kyiv regime would have been impossible,” Peskov said.
The United States has denied any role in the attack.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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