The number of diplomats at the 5.5-acre Russian embassy campus on Orwell Road in Dublin 14 has fallen to five.
Prior to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the embassy had 14 accredited diplomats, and 16 administrative and technical staff, making it the second-largest embassy in Dublin at the time.
Following the invasion the Government introduced a policy of restricting visas for replacement diplomatic staff at the embassy and an overall aim of reducing the total number of accredited staff at the campus by half. By the middle of last year the number of accredited diplomats had fallen to eight.
The most recent diplomatic list published by the Department of Foreign Affairs shows there are now just five diplomats accredited to the embassy. A spokesman for the embassy confirmed this and said there were also nine technical and administrative staff.
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In 2020, planning permission for a major development on the Orwell Road site, which would have included a fourfold increase in floor space, including a major underground element, was vetoed by the State on national security grounds.
At the time the accredited diplomats at the embassy included three defence/military attachés, positions often associated with dealing with a country’s intelligence service in overseas missions.
The latest diplomatic list shows the five diplomats at the embassy – who include the ambassador, Yury Filatov, who has a residence on Ailesbury Road, Dublin 4 – do not include a military or defence attaché.
The Ukrainian embassy, on Elgin Road, Dublin 4, also has five diplomats accredited to it, according to the list. However it lists two London-based, non-resident defence attachés as being accredited to the Elgin Road mission.
Edward Burke, a security expert at UCD, said he was not surprised that the number of diplomats at the Russian embassy is continuing to contract, saying it is part of a Europe-wide response to Russian interference in elections.
“EU member states are being extremely careful about accreditation,” he said. “There is a lot of intelligence exchange between EU states about who is going where ... I think they [the Russians] are very angry about it.”
On the other hand, he said, the Russians have known for some time now that “the game is up” in relation to having intelligence activities operating out of embassies, as the identities of many of the people involved are known to European states.
The Russians have switched to operating spying operations independent of their embassies and diplomats, creating a challenge for counter-intelligence, he said.
“The concern is that they are not sighted. We have limited resources. We put in a huge and admirable effort to keep tabs on the embassy, not least because of its planning application a few years ago, but my concern is that Russia has changed the game anyway.”
Prior to the European elections in June, the Belgian authorities raided the office and home of a member of staff at the European Parliament while investigating a suspected Russian interference operation that Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said was active in several member states.
A spokesman for the Russian embassy confirmed the number of staff at the mission was now reduced to five, but did not comment further.
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