FM Lavrov-We Do Not Expect Transparent Investigation Into NS Blast

Wires reporting comments from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov regarding the explosions in Sep 2022 that put the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline running from Russia to Germany out of order. Lavrov states that Russia does 'Not expect a transparent investigation into the Nord Stream blast'. Lavrov also talks up the investigation by US journalist Seymour Hersh, which laid the blame of the attack at the feet of the US, saying that it was 'objective' (the White House dismissed Hersh's report as fantasy).

• On 22 March, White House NSC spox stated that “We still do believe it was an act of sabotage,", and that the United States “was not involved in any way,” The US has said it will refrain from speculating on the issue until the European countries near the blast site have conducted their own investigations.
• Lavrov also hits out at the ICC arrest warrant issued against President Vladimir Putin by denigrating the reliability of the organisation: "Currently, the ICC is headed by a prosecutor who is a naturalized Anglo-Saxon, and, let me put it this way, who, as we have all seen, is surely just following orders from his handlers who have forbidden the institution to investigate crimes committed by NATO member states, but rather unleash it to dig up spurious pretexts, and non-existent facts, so as to advance the agenda of the so-called collective West."