Alexander Novak, the deputy prime minister of Russia, said on Friday that Russia needs permission for its ships to look into the explosions that damaged Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
He didn’t say who should give permission, but Nord Stream AG, which runs the older Nord Stream 1 pipeline, said last week that the owner of a survey vessel it rented didn’t have permission from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry to leave and start checking for leaks in the pipelines.
Novak told reporters that Moscow was trying to find out who was responsible for the damage to the pipelines. “The whole question is about access for our vessels, which should have rights of passage,” he said.
Russia said Thursday that it had called diplomats from Germany, Denmark, and Sweden to complain that representatives from Moscow and Gazprom (MC:GAZP) had not been asked to join an investigation into gas pipeline leaks from Russia to Europe.
Russia has asked Sweden to be a part of the investigation and to share any findings with them before it gets too complicated.
The leaks in the Nord Stream pipeline have been brought up through diplomatic channels in both Moscow and Copenhagen, the Danish Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
Damage to the Nord Stream pipelines is still not clear, but countries in the European Union have said they suspect sabotage. Russia, meanwhile, has called the damage an “act of international terrorism” and put the blame on the West.