IRELAND TO ‘EXPEL ONE RUSSIAN DIPLOMAT’
Russian diplomat to be expelled today as nations worldwide rally to support UK after poisoning
ONE Russian diplomat will be booted out of Ireland today as a result of the Salisbury poisoning scandal.
But ministers here are worried that the Putin government in the Kremlin will promptly respond with a tit-for-tat expulsion from Ireland’s representation in Moscow.
With only nine staff at the Irish Embassy, retaliation would hit our consular services in Russia.
A source close to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Ireland’s move would be ‘proportionate’ to our size, hinting heavily at a single expulsion, although there could be another sanction in a policy or cooperation area.
Foreign Affairs Minister and Tánaiste Simon Coveney will today make a recommendation to Cabinet after considering a detailed intelligence assessment overnight.
The Irish Daily Mail understands that the dossier indicates ‘multiple’ instances of intelligence gathering and espionage seen as incompatible with diplomatic status.
There are 17 staff at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Ireland, and there will be no declaration of ‘persona non grata’ against Ambassador Yuri Filatov, who only presented his credentials to President Michael D Higgins last week.
Instead, one of his colleagues, possibly a cultural attaché, will be selected for the boot.
Mr Filatov has called the allegations that Russian agents poisoned dissident Sergie Skripal and his daughter Yulia, or are engaged in espionage in Ireland, as ‘ridiculous and ludicrous’.
And he has declared that the Russian government will see any expulsion by Ireland as ‘an unfriendly act.’
But the Government is concerned that heavier Irish action could produce an angry Russian backlash. When Britain expelled 23 diplomats over the Skripal poisoning by a suspected Russian military nerve agent, the Kremlin responded not only by expelling 23 British diplomats in return, but also enforced the closure of the British consulate in St Petersburg and shut down the British Council – an exclusively cultural and arts liaison group – in the country.
Ireland has two officials working for Enterprise Ireland in Moscow and any action against them would hit Irish exporters who have been steadily winning greater business in Russia.
There is a perception that the Taoiseach helped lead a serious EU response to the Skripal attack by speaking up in support of Prime Minister Theresa May at last week’s EU Council meeting.
There is anxiety on the part of the Independent Alliance, on whom Fine Gael depends in government, that if such a view were shared in Moscow it could result in disproportionate retaliation against Ireland.
Minister of State for Science John Halligan said at the weekend he was concerned about Ireland ‘leading the posse’ against Putin.
In total, the West yesterday expelled more than 100 Russian spies in a show of support for Britain. In an unprecedented diplomatic rebuke to Moscow, 22 countries said they would be joining the UK in expelling Russian agents in retaliation for the Salisbury attack.
The extraordinary Western response is a coup for Theresa May, who has spent days warning allies they could face similar Russian aggression if they stand by.
The Prime Minister told MPs: ‘This is the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history. If the Kremlin’s goal is to intimidate and divide the Western alliance then their efforts have spectacularly backfired.’
The US led the way with the expulsions, announcing that 60 Russian ‘diplomats’ would be booted out. Sixteen EU countries said they would also be expelling Russian agents, with at least two more – Ireland and Belgium – expected to follow in the coming days.
Yesterday the Kremlin warned that the world was entering a new Cold War as it hit out at those trying to ‘contain Russia’.
A spokesman said: ‘This unfriendly move by this group of countries will not go unnoticed, and we will respond to it.’
‘Spectacularly backfired’