Hitting the British where it hurts most doesn't require large armies, but a simple political decision made thousands of miles from land: Ban British ships from fishing in Russian Arctic waters.
The seemingly harmless measure would mean that the British fleet would be unable to supply itself with cod and haddock (a very similar fish), the basic ingredients of its most popular dish: The fish and chips Fish in batter with potatoes.
According to information from the Daily Mail, the alarm was triggered and was well received by the British. According to this newspaper, the Kremlin wants to break an agreement signed 70 years ago between the two countries that allows British ships to fish in Russia's Kola Peninsula, the Barents Sea and east of Cape Kanin Nos.
Not even in the worst years of the Cold War did the USSR dare to take the step that Russian President Vladimir Putin now seems determined to take.
Last year alone, 566,784 tonnes of cod were caught in the Barents Sea, the main supplier of the fish served in British homes and establishments such as fish and chips. Around 40 percent of the cod and haddock sold in fish and chips nationwide traditionally comes from these waters.
But now the Kremlin has backed down a law that would require Russia to withdraw from the 1956 agreement and would ban Britain from maintaining its valued stocks of cod and haddock.
British government sources interpret the move as Kremlin retaliation for British support for Ukraine in the two-year-old war.
An agreement in the middle of the Cold War
The Fisheries Agreement between the United Kingdom and the USSR was signed in Moscow on May 25, 1956 by Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov and British Ambassador to the USSR William Hayter.
The pact led to an increase in British fishing in the Barents Sea and in 1961 British ships caught 158,000 tons of cod in the region.
Warships to deter British fishing vessels
Nine years later, that figure had risen to 181,000 tonnes as the cod wars led to reduced catches in Iceland and the region has since supplied a huge supply of British cod and haddock, according to the Daily Mail.
However, according to the Izvestia newspaper, Putin is preparing to “terminate” the Cold War agreement. This means the measure that has not yet been approved by Parliament The Russians will use warships to stop British trawlers from fishing in these waters.