Russia takes 40 percent of its cod back from UK, making fish and chips dream dish

Russia terminated a 1956 agreement between the governments of the USSR and Great Britain, which allowed British fishermen to fish in the waters of the Barents Sea. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, commenting on the decision, said that Russia managed to return the fish that the British had been eating for 68 years.

After Great Britain excluded Russia from most favoured nation trade status, the State Duma denounced the agreement between the governments of the USSR and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on fisheries.

In March 2023, London introduced an additional 35 percent tariff on imports of certain Russian goods into the country. The list included iron, steel, fertilisers, wood, silver, lead, iron ore, strong alcohol, vinegar, glass, paper, cardboard, ships, white fish and more.

The fisheries agreement was signed in May 1956. Russian Deputy Minister of Agriculture Maxim Uvaidov said that, according to the document, British fishermen could fish in the waters of the Barents Sea along the coast of the Kola Peninsula, as well as along the coast of Kolguev Island.

Rosa Chemeris, a member of the International Affairs Committee, noted that over the past year, more than 500,000 tons of fish were produced under this agreement.

The agreement was concluded 68 years ago during Nikita Khrushchev's service as First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee.

When concluding the agreement, Russia unilaterally allowed England to fish near its shores. Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the State Duma of Russia, noted that the UK was imposing sanctions against Russia while "Russian cod accounted for as much as 40 percent of Britons' diet."

"Now let them lose weight and get smarter,” he concluded.