The explosive devices at the North Caucasus-Transcaucasus and Mozdok-Tbilisi gas pipelines were the equivalent of 700-800 g of TNT, Russia’s Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolay Shepel said. The prosecution has started a criminal case on the charge of deliberate damage of property or destruction of property. Shepel explained that because nobody was hurt, the explosions caused no serious damage to the environment, the crime is qualified as property damage, not as a terror attack. Meanwhile, sources close to the investigation say that the basic assumption is that the explosions are caused by subversive activities of extremist groups, reports Lenta.ru.
The ArmRosGazprom Company has appealed to the Armenian population to save gas and use alternative sources for heating, the company’s spokeswoman Shushanna Sardaryan stated. According to her, after the gas supplies were cut off from Russia, ArmRosGazprom started supplying gas to the customers in the previous amount from the Abovyan underground gas reservoir. Meanwhile, as Sardaryan noted, in the next few days gas supplies to the local gas stations. “If the population saves gas, the resources will be enough until the gas pipeline from Russia to Georgia and Armenia is restored,” said the spokesperson for the company, which is the exclusive importer of gas to Armenia. According to her, Armenia daily consumes 6.7 million cubic meters of gas.
On Sunday, several explosions have occurred on the Mozdok-Tbilisi section of the gas pipeline, as a result, gas supplies from Russia to the South Caucasian countries was cut off. As the Russian Emergency Ministry says, the explosions occurred at 02:55 a.m. (Moscow time) near the Lars check-point in South Ossetia (Russia). The ministry cannot confirm yet whether the explosions were caused by terror activity or some technical reasons. According to preliminary assumption, the gas pipeline was damaged by technologic reasons, reported IA Regnum.
