Ominous gas leaks

Nord Stream investigation in Sweden closed

The gas leaks occurred in September 2022.(Bild: AFP)

The Swedish public prosecutor's office has closed its investigation into sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea. This was announced on Wednesday by Mats Ljungqvist, the public prosecutor in charge of the investigation. Germany will be responsible for investigating the sabotage. 

He justified the decision by stating that the Swedish courts did not have jurisdiction. Regardless of the decision in Sweden, the investigations into the explosions in Denmark and Germany are continuing.

Ljungqvist went on to explain that nothing had been found during the comprehensive investigation to suggest that Sweden or Swedish citizens had been involved in the attack in international waters.

Sweden's security not threatened
As the Swedish intelligence service Säpo added in a press release on Wednesday, the investigation was launched in Sweden to determine whether the sabotage was directed against Sweden and thus threatened Sweden's security, the news agency TT reported. "The investigation has shown that this was not the case," it continued.

As several German media reported on Tuesday, the German authorities could benefit from the Swedish move because the Swedes could provide them with their evidence. The German Federal Public Prosecutor's Office announced that the investigation from the German side is ongoing. "No further information is currently being provided," a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Indications of sabotage
The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines running through the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany were severely damaged by explosions on September 26, 2022, seven months after Russia's attack on Ukraine. Sweden later announced that remains of explosives had been found on the pipelines.

This fueled speculation that it was sabotage. Since then, Western countries and Russia have been blaming each other. There had also been suspicions that Ukrainian actors could be behind an attack.

Nord Stream 1 has supplied a significant proportion of the Russian gas imported to Europe since 2011. However, in the course of the confrontation with the West following its attack on Ukraine, Russia had already cut back supplies before the destruction and then stopped them completely. The brand new Nord Stream 2 pipeline was already filled with gas - but the German government had halted the approval process for this second pipeline in response to the war of aggression.