A spokesman for Russian energy giant Gazprom claimed on Monday that an underwater remote-controlled minesweeper spotted in 2015 in the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline belonged to NATO.

An announcement at the time stated that a “detonator” had been neutralized by the Swedish armed forces, without further clarification.

Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kuprianov told Russian television yesterday that it was an underwater remote-controlled minesweeping vessel, called SeaFox, which had been spotted at a depth of about 40 meters near the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline connecting Russia to Germany. Due to the incident, the flow of natural gas was temporarily interrupted, Kuprianov said during the television interview.

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Russian energy giant Gazprom owns a 51% stake in the Swiss-based consortium Nord Stream AG, which operates the natural gas pipeline.

Leaks detected two weeks ago on the Russian-made Nord Stream natural gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, which investigators say were caused by explosions and suspected sabotage, have opened a new front of confrontation between Moscow and the West, who blame each other.