MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. Russia’s Federation Council Committee on International Affairs supported the bill terminating the fisheries agreement with the UK at a meeting on Monday, a source in the committee told TASS.

It also recommended that the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, approve it at a meeting on March 6.

The government of the USSR and the government of the United Kingdom signed the agreement in Moscow on May 25, 1956. The document came into force in March 1957. Under the agreement, the government of the Soviet Union allowed British fishing vessels to fish in certain areas of the Barents Sea along the coast of the Kola Peninsula. Ships were also allowed to sail and anchor freely in these waters. Since Russia is the legal successor of the USSR, the agreement continued to operate after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

According to the documents attached to the bill, the agreement is "predominantly unilateral in nature, and there are no similar or commensurate benefits for the Russian Federation."

They also note that, given the UK’s decision on March 15, 2022 to end the most favored nation regime in bilateral trade with respect to the Russian Federation, the termination of the document "will not cause serious foreign policy and economic consequences for the Russian Federation."