UNSC rejects Russia's resolution on independent inquiry into Nord Stream explosions

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) turned down a Russian resolution that sought an independent probe into the Nord Stream explosions that occurred last September. On Monday, the resolution was merely backed by three nations, with zero votes against it and 12 nations that decided to abstain. Therefore, the resolution was unable to be adopted over its inability to garner a total of nine required votes.

According to TASS, the resolution was backed by Russia, China, and Brazil. Countries that abstained were the United States, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, the UAE, Malta, Switzerland, Gabon, Ecuador, Albania, Ghana, and Mozambique. The resolution was co-created by Belarus, Syria, DPRK, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Eritrea, six nations that did not participate in the vote as they are not members of the UNSC.

Russian envoy to UN says Moscow will not seek another UNSC vote

After the failure to acquire enough votes, Russia’s envoy to UN Vasily Nebenzya said that Moscow will not be pursuing another vote on the resolution. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Nebenzya said that Russia had already "expected something like that because it betrays and reveals a few things. You saw our dialogue with the representative of the United States. He simply couldn’t answer simple questions, accusing us of propaganda and what not, like they always do. They try to shift focus on Ukraine."

"Our resolution doesn’t contain a single reference to a single country. It just called for an independent investigation because the investigations that are being conducted nationally by Sweden, Denmark and Germany don’t meet the requirement for an objective investigation since they simply exclude one of the countries that suffered most. I think that was enough. I think it revealed the real attitude on the issue," he added. 

Monday's rejected resolution followed a draft that was put forth by Russia earlier this year in February, urging the establishment of an international independent commission that can check whether allegations made about the Nord Stream pipeline explosions by American journalist Seymour Hersh are true. According to Hersh, the explosions, which Russia dubbed an act of international terrorism, were orchestrated by the US with the support of Norway.