ALGIERS. March 16 (Interfax) -Speaker of Russia's Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko has called for an independent investigation of the situation involving explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipeline.
"Russia has demanded and will further demand a serious and independent investigation, we demand that the United Nations set up a special commission and invite independent specialists, expert academics to have the culprits named," Matviyenko told reporters in Algiers on Thursday.
She went on to describe the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipeline as 'the crime of the century,' as "nothing like it comes to my mind." What happened there is "a state terrorist act, it is impossible to blow up a gas pipeline in the center of the Baltic Sea without the consent of heads of state, if it wasn't done at their behest," she said. "It is clear that this is a high tech operation, special equipment, special explosives, trained people, it couldn't be carried out at the amateur level," Matviyenko said.
"People in the U.S. are making such a fuss, because the information, including from the American journalist, can be harmful on the eve of the elections of the Democrats, the presidential election, this is a complicated story," she said.
In September 2022, a loss of pressure was recorded at two strings of the Nord Stream gas pipeline and one string of Nord Stream 2 as result of an explosion near the Danish island of Bornholm.