Any official Russian statement concerning Nord Stream sabotage?

Question

On October 29, 2022, various European news agencies such as Reuters published articles claiming that the Russian Ministry of Defense had specifically accused UK special forces of sabotaging the Nord Stream pipeline in September. However, these articles merely contained excerpts from the alleged Russian statement.

I could not find any news release or statement of this type on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Is there any publicly available statement released by the aforesaid Ministry of Defense detailing these new accusations?

Answer 1

No - the Reuters article seems to contain the full detail of the allegations so far. There doesn't appear to be any detail released regarding the substance of these claims. The statement in question was posted on the Russian Ministry of Defence's Telegram channel:

Today at 4.20 am, the Kiev regime carried out a terrorist attack against the ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian ships that were on the outer and inner roadsteads of the Sevastopol base. The attack involved nine unmanned aerial vehicles and seven autonomous maritime drones.

❗️ It should be emphasised that the ships of the Black Sea Fleet that were subjected to the terrorist attack are involved in ensuring the security of the ‘grain corridor’ as part of an international initiative to export agricultural products from Ukrainian ports.

The preparation of this terrorist act and the training of military personnel of 73rd Marine Special Operations Center were carried out under supervision of British specialists 🇬🇧 in the city of Ochakov, Nikolayev region in Ukraine.

⚠️ According to the available information, representatives of this unit from the British Navy were involved in plotting, organising, and implementation of the terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on 26 September this year to blow up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines.

The Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also made a statement on the matter, which is posted on the Ministry website (in Russian):

The Russian Foreign Ministry, together with the Russian competent departments, is working on practical steps in connection with the involvement of British specialists in the preparation of a terrorist attack in the Black Sea on October 29 and training of the Ukrainian military, as the Russian Ministry of Defense announced.

At the same time, the Russian military reported that they had information about the involvement of the British special services also in a series of explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. Russia has repeatedly called for a joint investigation into these attacks. Relevant proposals were sent to the governments of Denmark, Sweden and Germany. The fact that the Western countries refused this proposal confirms that they have something to hide. Now we understand what exactly they are hiding.

Answer 2

There is a statement by the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service where he claims to have evidence for the West being responsible. Here is a translation of the part of a russian article dealing with that statement and other ones including by Putin:

Thus, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (SVR), Sergei Naryshkin, claimed that the SVR has documents on the "western trace" in the incidents on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines.

For her part, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in her Telegram channel that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, during a joint press conference with Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, openly spoke about the motives of the US and NATO for destroying the Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2 pipelines.

She recalled that earlier the head of the White House, Joe Biden, declared the readiness of the United States to "end the Nord Stream" in the event that Moscow decides to "invade Ukraine." Zakharova accompanied her post with a video of this speech by the American leader on February 7.

Later, President Vladimir Putin, during an address at the ceremony of admission to Russia of the Donetsk, Lugansk People's Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, accused the "Anglo-Saxons" of the explosions on the "Northern Streams", calling the incident a diversion.

"The Anglo-Saxons have not had enough sanctions. They moved on to diversions. Incredibly, but a fact, they organized explosions on international gas highways. In fact, they have begun to destroy the pan-European energy infrastructure," he said.

Answer 3

As of the time of writing, Reuters write that

• Russia says UK navy personnel blew up pipelines
• Russia does not give evidence for claim
• Britain denies Russian claims
• Russia says will seek UN attention

That much looks official but Russia provides no evidences, even if they say they have something.