Law, Power, and Justice

Opinion | Dublin’s storied pubs this week were buzzing with salacious gossip about a politician compromised by a Russian honeytrap.
— Read on www.themoscowtimes.com/

excerpts.

Russian intelligence used a strikingly beautiful female agent to recruit the politician, codenamed Cobalt, as an agent aiming to – among other things – undermine relations between Britain, Ireland and the EU during Brexit negotiations.

Cathal Berry, a former army chief who now sits in the Dail’s backbenches, claimed Ireland is “a playground” for Russian spies due to its extensive assets and lackadaisical security culture. 

As part of a grand Western coalition that has imposed an unprecedented number of sanctions against Russia and its elites, Moscow considers Ireland and the rest of the EU to be legitimate targets. Trying to compromise local politicians and MEPs and undermine democratic institutions is an attempt to instill chaos, sowing disharmony and twisting public opinion for the Kremlin’s benefit. 

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum warned that Russia is increasingly using low-level criminals to commit arson, sabotage, and attack dissidents with the aim of sowing chaos across Europe. Moscow is ramping up cyberattacks and reliance on criminal proxies after its spy network was largely dismantled by the expulsion of 750 Russian diplomats following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Ireland’s healthcare system was hit by a Russian ransomware cyber-attack in 2021 that so far cost 100 million euros ($109 million) and has caused thousands of people to suffer the impact of delayed care. That figure is expected to increase to well over 600 million ($655.7 million).

In the month before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ireland had to depend on a band of hardy fishermen to deter Russia from holding a massive naval exercise in its exclusive economic zone. 

Sleeper spies have also been active in Ireland. Last year, Sergei Cherkasov was caught by Dutch security forces trying to get an internship at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Cherkasov, under the Brazilian alias Viktor Muller Ferriera, graduated with a first-class degree in political science from Trinity College Dublin in late 2018. 

“Illegal” spies operating without diplomatic cover, a cornerstone of Soviet-era espionage, remain a key weapon in Moscow’s arsenal against the West. Putin, himself a former KGB officer and later head of the FSB, has revived and expanded this campaign of disinformation, subversion, and intimidation. 

Cobalt was not the first Western politician to fall for a honeytrap and he certainly will not be the last. Femme fatales have long been a hallmark of Russian espionage, and no one has perfected the honey trap quite like the Russians. As the former KGB General Oleg Kalugin once quipped, the Soviet intelligence agency did not ask Russian women to stand up for their country but “asked them to lay down.”

With that in mind, my advice to any middle-aged Irish politician is simple. If a Slavic beauty comes bearing gifts, take off your beer goggles and make a beeline for the nearest exit.