Irish Fishermen Force Putin to Move Provocative Russian Naval Live-fire Drills

Putin gets a taste of reverse Hybrid Warfare in the Gray Zone. The West may have just won its first victory against Moscow’s provocations in Ukraine and beyond, but it wasn’t won by NATO or the United States. Instead, Irish fishermen made the Russian Bear stand down.

As reported earlier by ALN, Irish fishermen had planned to interfere with scheduled Russian naval live-fire exercises off the island’s coast in Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The provocative Russian move amidst the Ukraine crisis prompted toothless complaints from Irish authorities.

But civilian Irish fishermen acted on their own, promising to send up to 60 fishing trawlers to operate continuously amongst the Russian warships in their traditional fishing waters.

The fishermen noted that the area where the Russian ships had planned to train with live weapons is home to half a billion tons of blue whiting and that seismic shocks from missiles and explosives could affect the migration patterns of tuna.

Politico Europe reported Patrick Murphy, chief executive of the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organization, said: “Our boats will be going out to that area on the first of February to go fishing.”

When one boat needs to return to port, another will head out so there is a continuous presence on the water, he continued. “If that is in proximity to where the [military] exercise is going, we are expecting that the Russian naval services abide by the anti-collision regulations.”

After a few days of contemplation, and despite earlier downplaying the drills 150 miles off the coast of Cork as only ‘three or four ships,’ Yury Filatov, Russia’s ambassador to Ireland, reports The Daily Mail, announced Moscow was finally backing down to the fishermen’s pressure.

Filatov said the Russian fleet would relocate the exercise outside of Ireland’s EEZ ‘as a gesture of goodwill.’

The Daily Mail added that Ireland’s minister for foreign affairs Simon Coveney tweeted: ‘This evening I received a letter confirming the Russian exercises will be relocated outside of Ireland’s EEZ. I welcome this response.’

Brendan Byrne, of the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association, said he ‘welcomed the sensible decision’ by the Kremlin to back down.

This is an excellent example of how the West can use Gray Zone tactics and Hybrid warfare against its enemies such as China and Russia. NATO and the Pentagon please take note.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.