VLADIMIR Putin has declared war on Britain’s fish and chip shops after tearing up a treaty allowing UK trawlers to catch Russian cod.

The Russian tyrant is understood to have personally made the decision to banish the agreement signed almost 70 years ago.

Scheming Putin’s move comes in revenge for the UK handicapping the Russian economy with sanctions over the war in Ukraine and supplying Kyiv with missiles.

His compliant parliament ended an agreement signed by the Soviet Union allowing British vessels to fish in the Barents Sea. 

The 71-year-old dictator’s warships could now be used against any trawlers seeking to catch cod on Putin’s doorstep. 

In Moscow, the ploy is seen as a masterstroke personally decreed by Putin, hitting the Brits where it hurts.

The speaker of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, snarled that it was a bid to take Britain’s favourite dinner off the table.

He said: “Putin returned Crimea to Russia, and he will forever go down in history as the president who returned our territory.

“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. 

“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.”

But the defiant National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF) – which represents the UK’s fish and chip industry – laughed at Putin’s attempt to hit out at the UK.

NFFF President Andrew Crook told The Sun: “This was just a bit of an attempt by the Russians to look as though they were responding to the sanctions imposed on them by the British Government.

“But the reality is that we do not fish in Russian waters in the Barents Sea.

“There is only one British register vessel that could do, the kirkella, but it doesn’t go that far. 

“The life cycle of cod is such that the young fish go to that area to grow to it is left alone to grow so there is the biomass required in the future when it returns to the fishing grounds in the Barents Sea.”

Loyalist Volodin, 60, claimed Moscow had been remiss in failing to earlier catch out the British.

He added: “The agreement was made 68 years ago, in 1956. 

“England was simply given it unilaterally and allowed to fish near our shores. 

“And what did our country get? And why wasn’t it decided to terminate the treaty earlier?”

MP Roza Chemeris whined: “Over 500,000 tonnes of fish were harvested under this agreement last year alone.”

FISHY BUSINESS

The decision to “denounce” the treaty was originally leaked to Izvestia newspaper, owned by a media conglomerate headed by the dictator’s long-term lover Alina Kabaeva, 40. 

For almost 70 years, even at the height of the Cold War, Britain vessels have been permitted to fish along the coast of the Kola Peninsula and to east of Cape Kanin Nos as well as around Kolguev Island and other islands. 

Moscow said it was taking the steps after Britain excluded Russia from the most favoured nation trading status in March 2023. 

Putin’s regime was especially enraged by an additional 35 per cent tariff on the import of certain Russian goods, including copper and vodka. 

Britain said this was done to “inflict maximum damage on the Russian economy while minimising negative consequences for the UK”.

The 1956 deal led to a surge in UK fishing in the Barents Sea. 

In 1961, UK vessels caught 158,000 tonnes of cod in the Barents Sea. 

Nine years later this had risen to 181,000 tonnes, as the Cod Wars led to a cut in catches around  Iceland.

Fishing quotas have reduced the size of allowable catches. 

The UK-USSR fisheries agreement was signed in Moscow on May 25, 1956, by Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov and the UK Ambassador to the USSR, William Hayter.