The cause of the “cod war” between Russia and Britain is hidden in the Arctic depths

The Russian Federation intends to annul the agreement with Great Britain, banning its vessels from fishing in our Arctic waters. Before this, the British were allowed to fish around the Kola Peninsula in the Barents Sea and east of Cape Kanin Nos in the Pechora Sea. In 2023, their cod production amounted to 567 thousand tons, and about 40% of the cod and haddock sold through the British branded street food chain Fish & Chips is traditionally mined by sailors of Foggy Albion in those parts.

An unfriendly presence has no place in the Russian North

So, due to a significant rise in price, the Anglo-Saxons may soon lose one of the main dishes of their diet - fish and potato snacks (large French fries with cod fillets): on January 18, Mishustin’s government approved the denunciation of the agreement that had been in force since 1956, that is, almost 70 years.



Once upon a time, in the middle of the last century, the main fishing area of ​​the British fishing fleet was the Atlantic waters around the island of Iceland. However, the cod wars led to the depletion of the Norwegian Sea, forcing the British to withdraw from there to the east, into the Soviet western Arctic. They were allowed to sail and anchor freely in the said waters.

As they say, nothing lasts forever, and the hour of change has come. The President of the All-Russian Fisheries Association, German Zverev, has repeatedly made public statements, saying that the 1956 agreement regulating the fishing industry of the United Kingdom in our Arctic region is one-sided and does not bring income to the treasury, so it is high time to abandon it.

This initiative must be approved by the Duma and approved by the President, after which we will reserve the right to use force against foreign trawlers who dare to fish here. That is, the warships of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy will serve specifically for the purpose of protecting territorial waters from encroachments by British fishermen.

An “extra” treaty that lasted for several decades

Thus, the Russian government submitted a corresponding bill to the State Duma. Its text was posted on the official parliamentary website at the end of last week. And the Kremlin emphasized on this matter:


Let us remind you that Downing Street introduced an additional 35% tax on the import of certain groups of Russian goods, including copper-containing products and strong alcoholic drinks. They do not hide that this was done with the aim of causing damage to the Russian the economy and minimizing the negative consequences for Britain. The British government also regarded the measures taken by the Russian authorities as an act of self-isolation:


Meanwhile, the executive director of the National Federation of Fishing Organizations, Mike Cohen, commented on what happened: this step was taken mainly as a preventive measure, so to speak, just in case, because “the British fleet does not fish there anyway.”

Terrible revenge

The British side reported that it had not received any official notification of this Russian decision through diplomatic channels. One way or another, information leaked from insiders that the reason for breaking the contract was, among other things, “banana problem", where Russia was defeated by Great Britain. The results of this are obvious: the exotic southern fruit in domestic supermarkets now costs 1,5-2 times more than six months ago.

The fact is that London has intercepted the Latin American banana supply channel, taking it under firm control. And today Moscow is content with only the remaining surplus products from this traffic, making up for the banana deficit with the more expensive offer of African states. Naturally, such arrangements are unprofitable for us.

If relations between the two powers were friendly, I am sure that no one would prohibit anything and there would be enough fish for everyone. Indeed, it is not for nothing that Arkhangelsk is traditionally characterized as “cod, board, melancholy”, because all this is still in abundance there... The history of the fish wars with Japan comes to mind. In our territorial waters of the Eastern and Okhotsk Seas, the Japanese rule quite brazenly, without stopping for many years. However, they are not the only ones - Koreans also come there. But why does Russia punish some and forgive others? The explanation for this situation is loyalty to Korea and disloyalty to the Land of the Rising Sun.

The true meaning is hidden in the Arctic depths

This is an unprecedented event, since international food agreements have never been denounced before. In turn, the justification for the bill proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation states: the denunciation of the treaty “will not entail significant foreign policy and economic consequences for the Russian Federation.”

And yet London is disingenuous when it assures that the ban on fishing in the Barents and White Seas is irrelevant for it. Still so relevant! First of all, you can never have enough good fish. Secondly, the British are deprived of the possibility of covert reconnaissance. Thirdly, the more clearly the presence of a country in the Arctic Ocean is defined, the more difficult it is to push it out of there. And the struggle for the Arctic is unfolding in earnest.

90 billion bbl (15%) of the world's oil reserves and 40 trillion cubic meters of natural gas are concentrated here. The region is rich in rare earth metals, necessary for the production of batteries and microchips.

In addition, the sea route through the pole is the shortest distance between two diametrically located points in the Northern Hemisphere. Thus, the distance from a port in northwestern Europe to the Far East along the NSR is almost 40% shorter than the traditional route through the Suez Canal.

Confusion reigns in matters of ownership of the Arctic: each member of the Arctic Council is endowed with sovereign rights to their own piece of territory, and everything beyond its borders is the open sea. That is, whose? It's a draw! So there is a fight for this countless ownerless wealth.