00:00Madam Chairperson, last week, on September 26, 2024,
00:09two years passed since the unprecedented terrorist attack on a civilian cross-border pipeline infrastructure facility,
00:18since the explosion of two branches of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the international waters of the Baltic Sea in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Denmark and Sweden.
00:29This event rightfully became the focus of the Security Council,
00:36since it poses a direct threat to international peace and security, energy and environmental security in Europe and shipping in the Baltic Sea.
00:46Since then, we have discussed this topic more than 10 times, both in open and closed formats.
00:53At the initiative of our country, three attempts were made to agree on statements by the President of the Security Council on this terrorist attack.
01:00A draft resolution on this topic was also introduced, but it did not receive the required number of votes.
01:07We believe that today is the right time to look around and get our bearings, where we are two years after the gas pipeline was blown up.
01:17I will start with the positive.
01:19None of the members of either the Security Council or the UN as a whole,
01:26with the exception of the Kiev regime and its Polish-Baltic accomplices,
01:31who have long been mad with Russophobia, dispute the fact that the attempt to destroy the Nord Streams deserves condemnation,
01:39and those guilty of this crime must be punished.
01:43This is important not only from the point of view of international law,
01:48including the 1997 International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings,
01:53but also in order to prevent similar acts of sabotage against international underwater infrastructure.
02:01In addition to gas and oil pipelines, these include electrical and communication cables,
02:07fiber-optic communication lines, and other networks, the stable functioning of,
02:13which is essential for the well-being of hundreds of millions of people.
02:17If they are threatened, enormous damage could be inflicted on the entire global economy.
02:23I hope that we all understand this.
02:27But if we want to ensure that these facilities are not endangered,
02:31then the terrorist attack against the Nord Streams must be investigated with particular care,
02:36and those responsible for it, be it countries, criminal groups, or individual criminals,
02:41must be punished so that no one would even think about repeating their actions.
02:48There is no doubt that they are now closely monitoring the progress of the investigation into the terrorist attack.
02:58And, unfortunately, we cannot do without negativity here.
03:02As we all remember, two years ago, the countries adjacent to the area of the terrorist attack,
03:08Germany, Denmark and Sweden, began their investigations.
03:13In February 2024, Denmark and Sweden announced the completion of their national investigations.
03:23The only conclusion after a year and a half of work was
03:27that the Nord Streams were indeed deliberately destroyed using explosive devices,
03:34but it is not possible to continue the criminal proceedings within the Danish and Swedish jurisdictions.
03:43In other words, Stockholm and Copenhagen stated the obvious,
03:48that the gas pipelines had been blown up, and the investigation happily threw up its hands.
03:54And the most astonishing thing is that after this, instead of calling a spade a spade and saying
04:01that the emperor really has no clothes, at the briefing we convened on April 26,
04:07our Western colleagues vied with each other to claim
04:12that the investigative actions carried out by Denmark and Sweden were effective
04:15and met high standards of the rule of law.
04:19Now, as they convince us,
04:23we must wait for the completion of the equally effective and transparent investigation by the Federal Republic of Germany.
04:31And this despite the fact
04:34that Berlin has not managed to provide the Security Council with any concrete
04:38and meaningful information about the results it has achieved, even if only interim, for two years.
04:43Moreover, any of our attempts to coordinate collective signals from the Security Council
04:49with a call for Berlin to hurry up and show greater transparency have invariably been blocked by the United States
04:55and its allies under the pretext that, as they said, pressure cannot be exerted on German investigators.
05:01This is extremely disappointing and surprising to us, since the investigation by the German authorities,
05:08as well as the completed investigations by Denmark and Sweden are being conducted in a completely non-transparent manner for us.
05:14And this despite the fact that Russia is definitely an affected party
05:20and it has sent requests for legal assistance to these three states, which have simply been ignored.
05:28Colleagues, this entire situation creates very specific and very dangerous challenges to international peace and security.
05:36And it is the direct responsibility of UN members to respond to them.
05:42The main challenge among them is the dangerous consequences of impunity, which I have already mentioned.
05:48In addition, the lack of due transparency on the part of the German authorities is already leading to the emergence of a wide variety of versions of
05:56what happened and assumptions about who might be behind this crime.
06:02If they appear due to the professional curiosity of journalists and their penchant for sensationalism,
06:08then they must be fought exclusively by promoting reliable official information,
06:14which the authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany are still not doing.
06:20As a result, suspicions are now arising regarding the actions, or inaction, of not only the authorities of the United States,
06:28Norway, Great Britain and Germany, but also Poland, which allegedly deliberately helped one of the suspects to escape.
06:36True. There is another explanation for the recent emergence of many of the most incredible versions of
06:42what happened. This is the elementary desire of the customers and perpetrators of this crime
06:48to cover their tracks and send the investigation down a false trail.
06:54At least two circumstances speak in favor of this.
06:58Firstly, it is absolutely implausible to claim
07:04that a group of out-of-control Ukrainian amateur divers were involved in the explosion.
07:10This scenario would be quite suitable for a Hollywood blockbuster, but it is unlikely to work in real life.
07:16Moreover, the overwhelming majority of experts claim
07:20that it would have been impossible to carry out such an explosion without state support.
07:26Secondly, the version about covering up tracks is supported by the desire of our Western colleagues
07:32to protect Berlin from delaying its investigation.
07:36The calculation here is clear. Until the investigation is completed,
07:40they manage to sabotage the Security Council from making any decisions.
07:44If the investigation is completed, they will not have such arguments.
07:48In these circumstances, Germany, consciously or not, acts as a spoiler,
07:54essentially blocking any steps by the international community to establish the circumstances of the explosion of the Nord Streams
08:00and punish those who ordered and carried it out.
08:04The niche in which our German colleagues find themselves is all the more surprising,
08:10because the destruction of the gas pipelines has directly affected Germany's economic interests.
08:16But even the highest German leadership itself acknowledges the full gravity of the crime committed.
08:22Last month, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz himself acknowledged that
08:26what happened was a terrorist act requiring a comprehensive investigation.
08:32In these circumstances, the impotence and servility demonstrated by Berlin finally
08:38puts an end to any ambitions and claims to its global role.
08:42We would like Berlin to realize this obvious truth.
08:46Be that as it may, after two years, all the suspicions we had, caused by Western statements,
08:52and in fact, sincere admissions of the West's complicity in the undermining of the Nord Stream,
08:58made by a number of American and European officials, not only have not been dispelled,
09:04but on the contrary, they have become even worse.
09:08In the context of the line of conduct chosen by our Western colleagues,
09:12including in the Security Council, it cannot be otherwise.
09:16And today, we are forced to announce the completion of work on another draft statement
09:22by the President of the Security Council due to the absolute inability to cooperate of the United States and its allies.
09:28We have been trying to agree on this draft statement for more than a month.
09:32We have held several rounds of consultations.
09:36There is a collective spirit.
09:40But if our opponents are faced with the task of preventing any meaningful collective decisions
09:44or statements by the Security Council, then there is no chance of success.
09:48Colleagues, if you think that with your obstructionist actions you are discouraging us
09:52and reducing our determination to ensure that those responsible for the blowing up of the Nord Streams
09:58are identified and punished, then you are very much mistaken.
10:02With each new sly maneuver of yours to obstruct the work of the Security Council on this issue,
10:06our determination to seek the truth and our conviction
10:10that we are on the right path and that you really do have something to hide only grows stronger.
10:16Moreover, it is becoming increasingly obvious
10:20that without establishing the truth about the terrorist attack on the Nord Streams,
10:24our world will simply not be able to return to any constructive interaction between global players,
10:30which the countries of the Global South are so interested.
10:34There cannot be a situation in which one part of our planet, the One,
10:40that arrogantly imagines itself to be part of a beautiful garden,
10:44is immune from fair and deserved punishment.
10:48We want you to understand this very clearly and not have any illusions
10:52that you will be able to emerge dry from the murky waters of the Baltic Sea.
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