State Duma deputies approved a bill condemning an agreement that allowed sailors from Great Britain to fish along the coast of the Russian Kola Peninsula in the Barents Sea, east of Cape Kanin Nos and along the coast of Kolguev Island.
The agreement between Moscow and London was signed in the spring of 1956; The document was signed by USSR Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov and British Ambassador to the USSR William Hayter. Even at the height of the Cold War, the British managed to fish in the Russian part of the Barents Sea. The agreement remained valid after the collapse of the Soviet Union; The Russian Federation became its successor.
On March 15, 2022, British authorities decided to end the most preferred nation regime in bilateral trade with Russia and also imposed additional duties on iron, steel, fertilizer, wood, whitefish and other goods from the Russian Federation. In response, Russian politicians considered terminating the fishing agreement.
As stated in the explanatory note on the bill adopted today, the agreement with the British is “predominantly one-sided and does not have similar or proportionate benefits for the Russian Federation.” The authors of the initiative are confident that the termination of the agreement “will not cause serious foreign policy and economic consequences” for the Russian Federation.
“They ate our fish for 68 years”
Welcoming the decision of the MPs, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, said: statedHe said Russia had recovered “the fish the British had been eating for 68 years”. He also noted that President Vladimir Putin personally initiated the bill.
“Putin returned Crimea to Russia” <…> And he gave us our fish back because the British had been eating it for 68 years. Unscrupulous. They announced sanctions to us and 40 percent of their diet and fish menu consists of our cod. Now let them lose weight. They are getting smarter! – said Volodin.
HE Additionalin particular, they prepare the “favorite dish” of the British from Russian fish (fish and chips – fish fillet in batter, deep-fried, served with large slices of fries).
“But now, on the initiative of our president, we have returned this favorite dish to ourselves,” the Chairman of the State Duma emphasized.
He added that Britain continues to benefit from the friendly fishing agreement despite London already imposing anti-Russian sanctions.
Decline in imports from Russia
All-Russian Fisheries Union (VARPE) previously supported The decision to terminate the fishing agreement with England. According to its chairman German Zverev, the rejection of the agreement signed by one of the parties is provided for in one article of this document and is not a violation of international law.
“This is the response of the Russian authorities to hostile actions against Great Britain.<…> “Before this, our country had the most preferred nation regime in the WTO,” he said.
Zverev also noted that London’s duties on whitefish from the Russian Federation have reduced its price attractiveness for processors and distributors in the UK, while in 2020 more than 11% of fish were supplied to the Kingdom from Russia.
With words After the UK introduced duties, fishing producers in Norway and Iceland increased supplies to this country, said Sergei Sennikov, Deputy Director of Norebo Management Company.
signature dish
Newspaper daily mail In January, he warned that terminating the deal would deprive Britons of their national fish and chips.
British companies catch large quantities of haddock and cod in Russian territorial waters, the meat of which is used for cooking.
About 40% of cod and haddock sold as fish and chips across the country is traditionally caught in Russian waters, the publication said.
The Daily Mail also noted that a whopping 566,784 tonnes of cod were caught by the British in the Barents Sea last year alone. By comparison, in 1961 (five years after the agreement with the USSR was signed) British ships had caught only 158,000 tons of cod.