Nord Stream suspect Serhii K is being held in an Italian prison, resisting an extradition order to Germany. German prosecutors accused Serhii K of sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline three years ago.
The court will consider whether the suspect is guilty or not. During that time, businessmen were waiting for a verdict on the Nord Stream suspect to answer another question: Is the Nord Stream attack an act of war or just a crime? A 400 million-uro lawsuit in London, UK depends on this definition.
Foreign Policy pointed out that today, the decision makers of what constitutes a war action are not politicians or political scientists, but insurance companies.
Right now, almost no country has officially declared war, said Bruce Carman, CEO of Hive Underwriters, a London-based airline insurance company. He noted: "Even Russia has never declared war on Ukraine."
If an incident is considered a act of war, standard insurance companies, known as all-risk insurance, will not pay. This began at the end of the 18th century, during the 4th England-Netherlands War, when England blocked Dutch ports.
Today, the scope of war insurance also includes confiscation, localization and similar actions, which are easy to identify. Meanwhile, "war action" is much more difficult to determine.
This seemingly obvious definition of the concept could decide huge sums of money, as most of the combat actions caused huge financial losses.
Last year, the owners of the Nord Stream pipeline sued insurance companies, demanding about 400 million euros in damages for the explosions in the Baltic Sea in 2022.
Insurance companies see this as a war action, meaning Nord Streams all-risk insurance will not be applied. But in the insurance industry, accuracy is very important: In whose name did the saboteurs act, and is it a country or not?
In the Nord Stream case, the amount of 400 million euros could depend on Serhii K's testimony in German court. Judges can only rule on the suspect's crimes, but the company that owns Nord Stream and insurance companies will closely monitor the trial developments to find evidence to serve the separate legal battle.
If Serhii K declares that he and his accomplices are just environmental activists angry about the CO2 emissions of the energy industry, that would benefit Nord Stream. But if the 49-year-old suspect says his group acted to support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, it would benefit the insurance company.
