A German Foreign Ministry spokesman was asked today about Russia’s complaint that they have not been forthcoming on their investigation into the bombing of the Russian-German Nord Stream submarine pipelines two years ago. The spokesman offered: “We are in information exchange with the Russian authorities” on their investigation into the September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline.
After Germany last week announced their first arrest warrant in the case, matters have continued to look rather sketchy. Earlier today, Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov told RIA Novosti that Russia had filed an official complaint against Germany in the matter, and that a transparent, international inquiry is needed. He called on Germany to “stop categorically refusing to present the facts that it couldn’t have failed to discover” in their investigation. Germany’s response today, was that they had limited information that could be shared without “jeopardizing” their investigation.
The German arrest warrant is against a Ukrainian identified as “Volodymyr Z,” who they say was recently near Warsaw, but has now disappeared. However, Germany’s ARD also reported that they reached “Vladimir Z” by phone, and he disclaimed any connection with the bombing.
The German investigation apparently is still confined to Volodymyr Z and his fellow tourists aboard the Andromeda yacht. It had sailed from Poland, but Poland authorities maintain the voyage was “purely touristic.” The gap between the technical requirements to destroy the pipelines and the capacity of the Andromeda crew has not dissuaded Germany from its line of investigation, and apparently there is not much interest in attempting to address the gap.