Only Russia, China and Brazil voted for the resolution, the remaining 12 council members abstained. The adoption of the resolution, presented by Russia, required the votes of at least nine of the 15 members of the UN Security Council and also that none of the five permanent members – China, Britain, France, Russia and the US – use their veto power.
On September 26, the still unexplained explosions hit three of the total four pipelines of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, through which Russia sent and planned to send gas to Germany and further to Europe. At that time, gas did not flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which Russia justified as necessary maintenance. Although Nord Stream 2 was completed, it was not launched due to the war in Ukraine and anti-Russian sanctions.
The Russian proposal called on UN Secretary-General António Guterres to set up a special international commission to investigate and hold the perpetrators accountable.
A mysterious object has appeared near the Nord Stream gas pipeline
Foreign
Russia prepared the resolution after the publication of an article by the American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who, citing an unnamed source, wrote that the sabotage of the gas pipeline is the responsibility of the Americans, specifically the divers of the US Navy on the orders of President Joe Biden. The White House categorically rejected the article, calling it “absolutely false and pure fiction.”
It is still unclear who was behind the damage to the pipelines, which were capable of transporting up to 110 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe – more than the total of Russian gas exports outside the former Soviet Union in 2022.
The German authorities assume that the explosions were the work of sabotage, but they do not know the perpetrators. Several possible hypotheses are still being tested. Russia called the incident a terrorist attack and suggested that Western countries were behind it. The New York Times recently wrote that a pro-Ukrainian group may have been behind the sabotage. Ukraine denies any involvement in the matter. Russia also doubts the credibility of this version, Kommersant newspaper wrote.
The suspects in the Nord Stream attack may have spoken Czech
Foreign
