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Russian activity in Ireland ‘should come as no surprise’, prime minister says
Ireland’s Simon Harris responds to report that Russian intelligence allegedly used a ‘honeytrap’ to recruit an Irish politician as an agent
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Russian activity in Ireland should come as no surprise to anyone, the Irish premier has said.
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Prime Minister, or Taoiseach, Simon Harris was commenting after a report that Russian intelligence allegedly recruited an Irish politician as an agent.
The Sunday Times reported that Russian intelligence used a “honeytrap” to recruit the politician as an agent during the Brexit talks, with one of the aims being to undermine relations between Britain, Ireland and the European Union.
The paper also reported that while the Irish military and security services identified the potential agent, code-named Cobalt, they remain in the country’s parliament.
Asked about the report by media in Dublin on Sunday, Harris said he would not comment on matters of security.
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“Other than to say more broadly, it shouldn’t come as any surprise to any of us that Russia seeks to influence public opinion, seeks to distort public opinion and is active in relation to that across the world and that Ireland is not immune from that,” he said.
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