By Tsvetana Paraskova
Russia could demand compensation (click here) for damages over the sabotaged Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, a senior Russian diplomat told Russian news agency RIA Novosti in an interview.
"We do not rule out raising the issue of compensation for damages as a result of the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipelines," Dmitry Birichevsky, Head of the Economic Cooperation Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, was quoted as saying.
The official did not specify with whom Russia would seek compensation.
Russia will continue to insist on an investigation into the blasts that involves Russian representatives, Birichevsky said, adding that the "Western countries are actively sabotaging work" on a Russia-proposed draft UN resolution calling for an independent investigation....
Denmark is salvaging (click here) an unidentified object found next to a Russian gas pipeline that was damaged in a blast last September, as investigators continue to seek who was behind the attack.
The operation comes two weeks after German authorities said they searched a vessel that may have transported explosives used in the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines. Several probes are investigating the origin of the attack on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 links, designed to deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea....
This video does not show a pipeline destroyed from the outside. There is no explosive evidence that one can point to that is obvious damage caused from an explosion outside the pipeline. It shows a section of pipeline separated from the other. This is pressure from inside pushing the two sections apart. There is no evidence of explosive anything. Where there is seawater and methane, there are methane hydrates. We have witnessed the power of accumulating methane hydrates in lifting a cement cap off the Deepwater Horizon breach. The fact that gas was leaking to the surface ONLY PROVES there was methane in the pipeline when it met with seawater. There was no explosion on the surface. There was no explosion that showed up BEFORE THE GAS LEAKED TO THE SURFACE.
Ukraine does not have the capacity to pull off such an operation. This is not a minor incident. Something separated sections of the pipeline. I think it was the build up of methane hydrates. There is absolutely nothing in this video to dictate an explosion or a series of explosions. Methane hydrates inside the pipeline would cause more than one separation of the sections of the pipeline after construction resumed after a period of suspended operations. There was a period of time when there was no construction going on. This occurred after the construction was restarted. There is no sabotage unless the construction crew allowed it to occur through the chemical reaction of seawater and methane.
