The Sunday Times' disgraceful “Russian Agent in the Dail” story

From the early hours of Sunday Morning, political Whatsapp groups started to light up, all of them concerned with one question: Who is Cobalt?

Cobalt, according to John Mooney in the Sunday Times, is a member of the Oireachtas who works for the Kremlin as an agent of influence in Ireland. The existence of Cobalt, Mooney tells us early on in his piece, “is one of the state’s most closely guarded secrets”, though evidently this is the case no longer.

Indeed, if this was a closely guarded secret, then the amount of detail about that secret spilled to Mooney by his sources should really be enough to provoke a tribunal of enquiry.

We are told in Mooney’s article how the state monitored a named Russian diplomat and suspected spy here in Ireland while that same diplomat cultivated and recruited Cobalt, the Oireachtas member who now serves Russia. We are told that the state has no evidence of Cobalt receiving money from the Russians but does have evidence of a Russian “honeytrap” agent meeting with Cobalt in Dublin on a number of occasions, presumably for the kind of evening’s entertainment that’s been known to encourage men to speak more freely. There is also speculation that “Cobalt” may have been entrapped engaging in some kind of blackmail-worthy activity overseas, and that the Russians may be using this – and the honeypot agent – as a kind of carrot and stick to keep Cobalt in line.

We are told that agents of the Irish state monitored conversations between the alleged Russian agent and his handlers in which the Kremlin’s man in the Oireachtas offered to formulate links between the Russians on one hand and Northern Ireland’s various paramilitary groups on the other.

We are further told – and this really is the kicker – that the Gardai actually approached Cobalt to warn him that the Russians were attempting to recruit him, but that said warnings were brushed off and dismissed – it was this that, per the Sunday Times, confirmed to Gardai that their “useful idiot” parliamentarian was actually an active and committed Russian agent.

So, why hasn’t he been arrested? The explanation offered in the Sunday Times is that despite being a Russian agent, our local FSB asset hasn’t actually committed any crimes, since he is not actually in possession of any top secret Irish information to leak to the Russians. Instead, this fellow is a mere “agent of influence”, trying to steer Irish politics in a pro-Russian direction.

As to the identity of Cobalt, we are told that the Sunday Times is withholding it, “for legal reasons”, presumably because identifying a serving member of the Oireachtas as a Russian spy who has been having sex with attractive female FSB agents is something the courts might consider defamatory, if you cannot prove it beyond all doubt.

Even without a name from the Sunday Times, there are clues that point us in the vague general direction of “Cobalt” – he holds, clearly, no Ministerial Office. We are told further that Gardai did not think he would have any links with Northern Paramilitaries, which might exonerate from suspicion many TDs from one of the opposition parties in particular. Indeed, if you narrowed down the clues provided in Mooney’s article, you might land amid a gaggle of independent TDs and Senators representing small left-wing parties, another gaggle of independents on the broad right of the Oireachtas, and a small number of slightly eccentric Government Senators, and imagine that Cobalt came from somewhere in those ranks.

Which is precisely why, of course, the story should not have been published.

Saying that the story should not have been published is not, for the avoidance of doubt, a suggestion that the Sunday Times’ story is in any way untrue. Indeed, most of the details within it fit comfortably within the known modus operandi of Russian intelligence across the European Union, and outside it. The Latvian MEP Tatjana Ždanoka, for example, was fined by the European Parliament in April amid allegations that she had been recruited as the same kind of “agent of influence” as “Cobalt” is alleged to be.

The reason the article should not have been published is the Whatsapp chats I mentioned in the opening paragraph: The cloud of speculation and suspicion that will now engulf TDs and Senators who might possibly or in theory fit the profile of a “Russian Agent of Influence”.

The net effect of this will be to focus suspicion on any TDs or Senators who have expressed political convictions or opinions about Russia, or the Ukraine War, or NATO, or various other topics, which are not in keeping with the broad western line on such matters. For example, it is highly unlikely that a “Russian agent of influence” would argue for more arms and support for Ukraine, or that they would suggest closer Irish alignment with NATO or a European Common Defence.

There is inherently a chilling effect on political discourse when a media outlet suggests that somebody aligned with a particular worldview is a paid agent of a foreign state. It may well mean that a TD or a Senator who holds particular views about the Ukraine War might feel less inclined to express those views, lest they be believed to be the kind of person who fits the profile of “Cobalt”.

What’s more, the Sunday Times clearly have enough information to name the person concerned if they feel like it. They have chosen not to do so “for legal reasons” – that is, to protect the Sunday Times from the consequences of the Sunday Times own journalism. But who is to protect the innocent TDs and Senators who may be suspected from the consequences of the Sunday Times’ journalism?

We are about to enter a general election campaign in which Ukraine and the Ukraine War may well be a topic of debate for voters. Regular readers know – I hope – what this writer’s views on that war are, and that those views would not be aligned with those of “Cobalt”. However, this is a democracy, and in a democracy the people are supposed to make decisions after listening to all of the arguments and making an informed choice.

When a media organ is suggesting – vaguely – that some people making some arguments might be Russian agents, then that media organ is not doing the public a service. It is instead placing a thumb on the scale of a debate ahead of an election campaign, and casting suspicion on honourable people who may have a particular viewpoint.

That is not public service journalism – it is the opposite. The Sunday Times should name the person concerned, or withdraw the story.