A Russian insurer placed under US and UK sanctions after it was revealed to be covering ships in Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers is threatening to sue a Danish publication that played a critical role in reporting on it.
Ingosstrakh, a Moscow-based insurer, has issued a “pre-action letter” to Danwatch, a Danish investigative outlet that has worked closely with the Financial Times.
The letter, which was preceded by three other warnings, focuses on a report from March that connected the insurer to vessels transporting Russian oil from ports where oil was consistently being sold above a price cap imposed by the G7.
Ingosstrakh has sought corrections from Danwatch over what it called “factually incorrect statements regarding the Client’s involvement with the ‘shadow fleet’”.
Jesper Nymark, the editor of Danwatch, described the strategy pursued by Ingosstrakh as a Slapp — or strategic lawsuit against public participation, which have been heavily criticised for their use by wealthy and powerful companies to deter critical reporting.
“[This] is a classic Slapp-case,” Nymark said. “First they rattle the sabre, after which we have some time to adjust. And if we don’t, we could end up in a lawsuit where the goal is to drain us of money.”
Nymark said that Danwatch, which employs fewer than 25 staff, had been singled out as “the smallest media with the least resources”.
The Financial Times, which worked with Danwatch on stories relating to Ingosstrakh last year, has not received any legal threats from the Russian company.
The UK added Ingosstrakh to its sanctions list in June. Proposals to list the company in the EU have not yet attracted sufficient support.
A senior member state official involved in sanctions negotiations told the FT that the legal threats would “definitely” be brought up in the next round of discussions about sanctions about adding the insurer to the EU sanctions lists, which they would support.
The US added the insurer to its sanctions list earlier this month, noting that Ingosstrakh had “insured oil tankers transporting Russian petroleum products”.
Danwatch reported, alongside the FT, that Ingosstrakh had insured tankers in the shadow fleet, the opaquely owned vessels that enable Russia to circumvent sanctions and restrictions, such as the G7 oil price cap.
Insurance companies are a key part of the mechanism used to enforce the price cap, which was intended to limit Russia’s oil revenues while not disrupting global markets. Western insurers are not allowed to cover tankers engaged in trades in breach of the price cap.
Ingosstrakh have stated that they refused to cover such vessels, highlighting a clause in their coverage stating that any covered ship operating in breach of western measures such as the price cap would have its policy cancelled.
The FT and Danwatch reported that this clause created an environmental risk, since the insurer was covering shadow fleet vessels. If such a tanker were to have an accident during a voyage while carrying non-compliant oil, the ship could lack coverage, potentially leaving coastal states such as Denmark and the UK with additional clean-up costs.
Last month, coastal European states agreed on new measures to check insurance of vessels transporting Russian oil.
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s foreign minister, was highly critical of Ingosstrakh’s threats and said on Thursday it was a “politically motivated lawsuit”.
The legal letters were sent by Ingosstrakh’s Russian lawyers, ELWI, who said in one of the letters to Danwatch that “portraying the client as an enabler of the ‘shadow fleet’ operations” was unfair as it “blatantly disregards the fact that the client operates in multiple jurisdictions and seeks to adhere to all applicable laws and regulations, including sanctions.”
Nymark, the Danwatch editor, said that they “fully trust” the documentation that informed the stories showing Ingosstrakh insuring shadow fleet vessels.
“[We] believe that stories and investigative journalism like this is more important than ever, both for our democracy and society,” Nymark added.
When Ingosstrakh was added to the UK sanctions list, the prime minister at the time, Rishi Sunak, said the fresh round of restrictive measures would help cut off Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “ability to fund a prolonged conflict”.
Washington followed suit earlier this month as one of the last acts in office of President Joe Biden, who increased sanctions against Russia’s oil sector. The measures also listed Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, two of the country’s largest oil companies, as part of efforts “to fulfil the G7 commitment to reduce Russian revenues from energy”, alongside 180 vessels involved in the Russian energy sector.
The legal letter to Danwatch stated that Ingosstrakh had “cancelled or denied insurance coverage to more than 100 vessels, reaffirming its commitment to legal compliance”. The company “has never provided coverage of sanctions-breaching activities where it had the prior awareness thereof”.
Ingosstrakh did not reply to a request for comment.
