The Kremlin reportedly engaged a sitting Irish member of Dáil Éireann, the Irish Republic’s parliament using a honeypot trap after which he was tasked with connecting with loyalist paramilitary groups in Britain’s Northern Ireland on Moscow’s behalf.
The unnamed lawmaker, reportedly a member of Ireland’s left-wing opposition, has also been spreading pro-Russian narratives in other areas, though investigations by Irish intelligence services say it was unclear if he did so on his own volition or following Moscow’s orders.
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Irish intelligence service said the lawmaker had no access to classified information but suspected he was merely seen as an asset to “[undermine] public trust in institutions” by the Kremlin through activities that The Times said could not be revealed for legal reasons.
Two senior Irish officials confirmed the incident to Politico but said the lawmaker hasn’t been arrested or charged since contact with suspected spies alone does not constitute a crime, and he currently remains unnamed.
The Times named Sergey Prokopiev, a Russian spy operating under diplomatic cover who was expelled in March 2022, as the mastermind behind Moscow’s plans to exploit rising tensions between factions in the Republic of Ireland and the UK governed Northern Ireland, following Brexit.
The Times said the parliamentarian agreed to engage pro-British loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland on Prokopiev’s behalf during a probable 2019 meeting outside Dublin, which prompted the investigations by Irish authorities.
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An unnamed official told Politico the lawmaker had no prior contacts with paramilitary groups and suggested the Kremlin was “clueless” about Ireland’s political landscape by engaging him in such activity.
As the loyalist groups are mostly pro-British and thus pro-Ukrainian, it’s unclear how the Kremlin planned to utilize the groups if the reports were true.
The Kremlin reportedly utilized a honeytrap carried out by an attractive female agent who worked to continue engaging and compromising the lawmaker following Prokopiev’s expulsion.
Authorities had asked the lawmaker to cease contact with the Russian parties, a demand the lawmaker chose to reject.
Ireland, with its traditionally neutral stance, had been identified by some as a potential breeding ground for Moscow’s growing spy operations prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since then, the current government has been vocally pro-Ukrainian and has reportedly stepped up its efforts against Russian espionage in recent years.
In February 2024, Dublin refused to allow Moscow to replace its diplomatic staff in Dublin amidst heightened espionage concerns after the March 2022 expulsion, which saw Prokopiev expelled alongside other Russian diplomats after Dublin deemed their activities “not in accordance with the international standards of diplomatic behavior.”
Anti-Western sentiment in some quarters of Irish society, including those in Northern Ireland – which bore the brunt of the fighting between marxist, Irish republican paramilitaries against British forces and unionist paramilitaries in the late 20th century – has allowed pro-Russian propaganda to proliferate in some quarters.
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