Spying on the spies: How the garda keeps tabs on Russian agents working from Dublin

 21st April 2022

Irish security services have been closely monitoring the activities of Russian spies operating from its embassy in south Dublin for “several years”, with intelligence gathered being shared “when necessary” with the security agencies of friendly nations such as the US and the UK, sources have confirmed.

The Irish Independent can reveal the sophisticated counterintelligence operation is conducted from a top-secret monitoring station in an anonymous building close to the controversial Russian campus on Orwell Road.

The centre is operated by officers from the Garda National Crime and Security Intelligence Service, the agency with responsibility for State security, in conjunction with the “Red Section” of the anti-terrorist Special Detective Unit (SDU).

It also sometimes works with the Defence Forces intelligence service, J2, including the Army Ranger Wing.

The facility is equipped with the latest eavesdropping and surveillance technology, which has allowed gardaí to identify and keep tabs on the movements and activities of Russian spies operating here since the early Noughties.

The Irish Independent understands a major focus of the security operation is that the Dublin-based Russian spies and diplomats do not use phones or the internet to communicate with the Kremlin.

Instead they rely on short-wave radio, which can transmit coded messages over thousands of kilometres, and can be intercepted by the authorities here.

We have also learned that the intelligence on the activities of the Kremlin spooks and people they meet is updated and analysed daily. It is then shared with other security services such as the CIA, MI6 and other EU intelligence agencies.

Files are kept on each individual working at the embassy, which has a disproportionate number of diplomats for the small number of Russian ­citizens living here.

The reports include transcripts of intercepted conversations and communications.

The revelations follow the Government’s decision to expel four Russian diplomats based at the embassy in the past week.

That came after senior garda officers briefed the Taoiseach and ministers on the secret intelligence reports.

On Tuesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dáil the Russians had been ordered to leave the country because their activities “have not been in accordance with international standards of diplomatic behaviour”, which is accepted shorthand for spying.

Sources have revealed the four diplomats are suspected members of the GRU, the Kremlin’s military intelligence branch, and that they were being closely monitored since their arrival in Ireland.

Security sources say the embassy has been used “for several years” as a major spy hub from where GRU agents and Russia’s foreign intelligence agency, the SVR, have been mounting operations across the EU.

It has also emerged Irish spooks have monitored Russian agents as they tried to compromise or bribe a number of international business figures.

In at least one case in recent years, Ireland shared intelligence with the security service of another country suggesting one of their citizens was the victim of “kompromat”, or compromising material.

The security agency then made “discreet contact” with this important individual and informed them that they were being compromised and advised they return home.

A source said: “Ireland has been perceived as a weak link in the EU security infrastructure, which is something that the Russians also believe and probably why they are in Ireland in such large numbers – that perception has suited everyone [the Irish and international security services].

“It is not very James Bond or anything like that but the Irish have been very effective and are well regarded by their peers.”

The secret garda intelligence gleaned from spying on the spies also led to the expulsion in 2011 by the then foreign affairs minister Micheál Martin of a Russian diplomat involved in the forging of Irish passports at Orwell Road. 

The documents were being used by Kremlin spies in the US and Europe.

The ongoing operations also prompted the Government to change legislation that enabled them to block plans for a massive extension to the embassy in 2020.

In March 2018 the use of the deadly Novichok nerve agent to poison former Russian military officer and British double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia gave the Irish Government an opportunity to send another spy home.

At the time Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald condemned the move and accused the then taoiseach Leo Varadkar of showing “flagrant disregard for Irish neutrality”.

In a highly unusual move Sinn Féin statements condemning the expulsion were deleted from the party’s website following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month.

On Thursday, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, who worked closely with MI5 in previous roles in the RUC and PSNI, told the Public Accounts Committee he was reviewing the counterintelligence resources available to him.