Russia has pulled out of a long-standing fishing deal with the UK in retaliation to sanctions brought in by the Foreign Office to mark the Ukraine invasion anniversary.
A long-standing agreement signed in 1956 allowed British boats to fish in the Barents Sea off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia.
But the accord has been ripped up after tensions between Moscow and the West soured further, with Russia’s parliamentary speaker Vyacheslav Volodin using some choice words aimed at Brits to justify the moves.
He said: “The British need to study some proverbs – ‘Russians harness the horse slowly, but ride it fast’.”
He told politicians that “the unscrupulous British” had eaten Russian fish for 68 years – declaring: “Now let them lose weight, get smarter.”
Mr Volodin said withdrawal from the fishing deal was in direct response to these sanctions – as British vessels caught 556,000 tonnes of cod and haddock in Russian waters last year alone.
A close Putin ally, the politician also doubled down on the Kremlin’s view that the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union was a tragedy.
He said: “With Gorbachev, we lost our country, and with Putin we got it back.”
Last year, Sky News reported that up to 40 per cent of cod and haddock consumed in the UK comes from Russia and Russian territory – with Moscow accused of “weaponising food”.
A UK government spokesperson said: “UK vessels do not fish in these Russian waters so this would have no material impact on our fish supplies, including cod or haddock.
“The UK has not received any official notification from the Russian Federation on this matter.
“Russia’s continued unilateral withdrawal from a number of international cooperation treaties is symptomatic of its self-inflicted isolation on the world stage as a result of its illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, told Sky News: “British vessels have not fished in Russian waters for decades so it’s a bit of a moot point.
“Cod spawns in Norwegian waters and migrates to the Russian area to grow so that area is avoided to ensure there is the volume of fish needed in the fishing grounds in the future when they migrate back.
“One area of concern is if Russian vessels are catching smaller fish in their waters – but DEFRA assure me they are monitoring this.”
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