Swedish prosecutors do not yet see the need to cooperate with Russia in the investigation into the sabotage acts at the Nord Stream pipelines, the case’s lead prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist told TASS.
“We will gladly cooperate if we see that there is a need for it. But in this case, we don’t see it,” the prosecutor said.
“In principle, we have a positive attitude toward cooperation [with Russia] but in the preliminary investigation, we are not focused on those who committed the sabotage act – TASS]. The most important thing for us is to rule out that Sweden was used in any way as a platform for this sabotage act,” Ljungqvist noted, referring also to “the secrecy of the investigation.”
The prosecutor refrained from commenting on the probe by US publicist Seymour Hersh, who wrote in his article on February 8 that explosive devices had been laid by US Navy divers with assistance from Norwegian specialists.
“I would prefer not to comment on any particular leads in the case. The crime scene is the object of various speculations, various influence operations. Conflicting theories emerged about who could be behind it. We were able to dismiss some of them immediately and continue entertaining other ones. But what exactly we’re working with, we can’t tell – we can not disclose any details as of now because of the secrecy of the preliminary investigation,” he said.
The main lead in this case is that the sabotage was committed by a government, Ljungqvist informed. “We got a pretty clear picture at the scene of the crime of who carried it out . It cannot be ruled out that there are some private individuals who may have been the perpetrators. Still, our main lead is, of course, that a government is behind it – directly or indirectly,” he stressed.
The prosecutor refrained from speculating on when the Swedish investigation would end. “It is important for us to do everything we can, to leave no stone unturned, and that means it will take as long as it needs to. So I have no prediction; we’re in no hurry,” he added.
