Vladimir Putin has pulled the plug on a decades-old deal which allows British fishermen access to its seas in response to the UK’s decision to impose sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
However, a spokesman for the British fishing industry has pointed out that no British crews have worked the icy waters of the Barents Sea since the 1960s – dismissing the move as “domestic political theatre”.
Mike Cohen, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO), also poked fun at “outlandish claims” by Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the Russian Duma, or parliament, that fish makes up 40 percent of the diet of the average Briton.
The Barents Sea is located on the northern coasts of Norway and Russia, with territorial waters split between the two.
The Russian President is reported to have “personally” taken the decision to scrap the treaty, ratified in 1956.
Mr Cohen told Express.co.uk: “British fishermen have not worked in Russian waters for decades and have no need to, since we can fish the same stocks closer to home. Fish move, after all.
“I cannot see any way in which this will affect British fishermen or British consumers.”
Mr Cohen described the Duma’s decision, ratified yesterday, as “domestic political theatre, unconnected to reality.”
He added: “Some of their claims are just outlandish.
“Forty percent of the British diet is fish? I wish it was!
“We catch 500,000 tonnes of fish a year in Russian waters?
“Our total catch as a national fleet was 630,000 tonnes last year – most in our own waters.
“A colleague tells me that they think the last time a British boat fished in Russian waters was the early 1960s.
“It was certainly a very long time ago.”
Volodin told deputies yesterday: “Putin returned Crimea to Russia, and he will forever go down in history as the president who returned our territory,” he said.
“And it’s him again, it’s his decision exclusively: he gave us back our fish.
“Because it was eaten for 68 years by the unscrupulous British.”
He continued: “They announced sanctions against us, but they themselves make 40 per cent of their diet, their fish menu, from our cod.
“Now let them lose weight, get smarter. Because it is cod and other species of fish, including haddock, that form 40 per cent of their diet.
“And it’s one of their favourite dishes.
“Now we have returned this favourite dish to them on the initiative of our President.”
