One Russian diplomat to be expelled here as part of EU-wide UK solidarity
A SINGLE Russian diplomat is expected to be expelled from Ireland as part of the Europe-wide solidarity being shown with the UK.
Tánaiste Simon Coveney will brief the Cabinet today on an ‘options paper’ compiled by gardaí and the Defence Forces.
Sources say he will recommend that Ireland follow 18 countries, including the United States, Germany and France, by taking action against Moscow.
The move will be met with swift retaliation from the Kremlin, which denies any involvement in the poisoning of an ex-spy Sergei Skripal on British soil earlier this month.
Russia’s Ambassador to Ireland Yury Filatov has already warned that any expulsions would be viewed as an “unfriendly action”.
The Irish Independent understands the Russian embassy in south Dublin has had no contact from the Department of Foreign Affairs yet, but is on stand-by.
Officially Russia has 17 accredited diplomats based in Ireland along with an unknown number of support staff.
By contrast, Ireland has just nine diplomats in Moscow.
A wave of co-ordinated action by EU and Nato countries yesterday was the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War.
Warning of an “unacceptably high” number of Russian spies in the US, the Trump administration said 60 diplomats would be expelled – all said to be Russian intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover.
The EU states telling Russian diplomats to leave their countries are: Germany (4), France (4), Poland (4), Lithuania (3), Czech Republic (3), Denmark (2), Italy (2), Spain (2), Netherlands (2), Estonia (1), Romania (1), Croatia (1), Finland (1) and Latvia (1).
Ireland previously ordered a Russian official to leave the State in 2011 following an investigation into the use of false Irish passports by Russian spies based in the US.
However, relations have been mostly benign in the interim, although trade has fallen significantly in recent years due to a tit-for-tat sanctions war at EU level as a result of Russian military action in Crimea.
Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in a critical condition after they were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury on March 4.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said Russia had “spectacularly failed” in efforts to “divide and intimidate the Western alliance”.
She also claimed to have evidence that Russia has investigated ways of distributing nerve agents for assassinations.