MOSCOW—Russia needs permission for its vessels to conduct investigations into explosions that damaged Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.
He did not specify who should grant the permission but Nord Stream AG, the operator of the older Nord Stream 1 pipeline, said last week that the owner of a survey vessel it chartered did not have the greenlight from the Norwegian foreign ministry to depart and start assessing ruptures to the pipelines.
“The whole question is in the access for our vessels, which should have rights of passage (to the area of the incidents),” Novak told reporters, commenting on Moscow’s efforts to investigate the damage to the pipelines….