UP to 40 Russian spies are working undercover in Ireland, it has emerged.
Senior security sources told the Mirror that intelligence services now have dozens of men and women working for them here – gathering information to pass to Moscow.
“Their intelligence operation here is very significant,” a source said last night – after it emerged that one unmasked Russian military spy had spent more than four years living and working in Ireland.
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Sources said the case of the GRU officer – who pretended to be a Brazilian national called Viktor Muller Ferreira and who studied at Trinity College Dublin between 2014 and 2018 – was just the tip of the iceberg.
One senior source told the Mirror that Russia had spent years building up its intelligence assets in Ireland – and there were now as many as 40 of their agents and sympathisers here.
The sources said Russia regarded Ireland as strategically important because of our location on the western flank of Europe. They added the spies are trying to access information about all aspects of Irish society – including politics, business, the civil service, as well as the Garda and Defence Forces. But the sources also said the agents were using Ireland as a base to gather intelligence on Britain – especially its military capabilities.
And Ireland is also seen as being important as we are on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean – a strategically vital area.
It’s understood security officials in the Garda and Defence Forces have briefed senior politicians that some Russian intelligence assets are working out of its embassy in South Dublin – but most are hiding in the general population.
The Government expelled four Russian diplomats on suspicion of being spies in March – but others are still here, sources said.
It’s believed a handful of diplomats in the 30-strong embassy are agents – and up to 35 that are working outside it.
An insider told the Mirror last night: “You are probably talking between 30 and 40 in the country right now. Some are based in the embassy, but that is a minority.
“Most are not attached to the embassy.
“They have their own jobs and are sympathetic to Moscow and pass on whatever information they get.
“But some are full-time agents. Others also use Ireland to lay up after other postings, to do more training or education.”
The source also said the security services were unaware that the spy who posed as a Brazilian student at Trinity was an intelligence agent.
He was only unmasked earlier this week after the Dutch intelligence service AIVD named and shamed him.
AIVD said Ferreira – whose real name is Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov from the GRU military intelligence unit – targeted the Hague-based International Criminal Court. That court is investigating Russian war crimes in its invasion of Ukraine – and the Dutch said Cherkasov tried to get access to it as an intern.
Online investigators then found his CV – where he claimed to have spent more than four years in Dublin.
Cherkasov used the Brazilian name of Viktor Muller Ferreira and lived in Ireland between 2014 and 2018, according to his online CV.
Ferreira claims to have studied at Trinity from 2014 to 2018, obtaining a degree in political science and quantitative methods of research.
Trinity said it could not comment yesterday, but sources confirmed that Cherkasov – who also studied at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in the US – did attend the university under the false name.
The source said he did not come to the attention of staff – and nobody had a clue he was a spy.
They added: “If Johns Hopkins didn’t know, neither did we.”
The Russian Embassy did not respond to a query from The MIrror last night.
