MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) - Russia has proposed setting up an international team of experts to explore the area of the explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines and detect possible additional explosive devices, but the response was uncertain, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"There we discovered this [a possible additional explosive device], not we, but a Gazprom vessel discovered it, we turned to the Danish authorities with a request, we did it quietly, without any noise, just with a request to work together or to form an international team of experts, specialists who could descend, together, transparently, clearly for all explore this place and, if there is really some kind of explosive device there, try to defuse it," Putin said in an interview with the Rossiya 1 (VGTRK) television channel.
"Well, the answer, as I said, was uncertain, to put it plainly, there was no answer, they said 'we have to wait,'" he added.
Putin said that the explosion was strong, and the pipe was torn out and thrown aside at some distance. "This issue is not simple, there are no examples in the global practice of even repairing such systems after such incidents, but theoretically, technologically, of course, everything is possible," the Russian president said, noting that this will take time, funds and new technologies.