Three Russian Navy ships were detected in waters close to the site of the Nord Stream explosions in the months leading up to the pipeline sabotage, according to media reports.
The ships included a research vessel, the Sibiryakov, that is believed to be capable of carrying out underwater surveillance, according to an investigation by public broadcasters in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, which focused on ship movements between June and September last year.
A Russian tugboat, the SB-123 was also detected, along with a third vessel that the report was unable to identify by name.
Last week, Danish authorities confirmed a sighting of a Russian Navy vessel, the submarine-carrying SS-750, near the Nord Stream pipelines four days before the pipeline blasts last September.
The three ships identified by the broadcasters’ investigation had their transmitters turned off, but their movements were reportedly tracked by a former British naval intelligence officer using open source information and radio communications.
Formal investigations in Germany, Sweden and Denmark are yet to report their conclusions, but the latest reports will reignite initial suspicions that Russia was behind the incident. The blasts have been confirmed as an act of deliberate sabotage by an ongoing investigation by Sweden’s prosecution service.
Russia has denied any involvement in the attack on the pipelines, which are majority owned by subsidiaries of Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday said it was “normal” for Russian ships to sail in the Baltic and called for investigations into the incident to be sped up.
