This was quite a big story here in Ireland in January. The government got nowhere trying to get the Russians to move their naval exercises outside the Irish EEZ but a group of fishermen announced they would sail out and confront them and the Russians agreed to move their exercises.
How a group of Irish fishermen forced the Russian Navy into a U-turn - CNN
How Irish Fishermen Took on the Russian Fleet and Won
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Murphy said the fishermen would be making a coordinated effort to head off the Russian fleet. “Our boats will be going out to that area on the first of February to go fishing,” he
told Politico on Jan. 25. “When one boat needs to return to port, another will head out so there is a continuous presence on the water. 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.” By constantly having their boats in the exercise waters, the fishermen would—peacefully—prevent the Russians from conducting the exercise.
Their action worked. On Jan. 29, Filatov issued a
statement announcing that Russia’s defense minister, Sergey Shoigu, had decided, “as a gesture of goodwill, to relocate the exercises by the Russian Navy, planned for February 3-8, outside the Irish exclusive economic zone (EEZ), with the aim not to hinder fishing activities by the Irish vessels in the traditional fishing areas.”
The Irish fishermen didn’t just humiliate Moscow: they also put Western capitals’ deterrence efforts to shame. And they did so by announcing asymmetric deterrence.
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