Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The ambassador is very welcome. I am sure it is getting tiresome having to respond to so many of us. I will try to get through this as quickly as I can.

Regarding Russia's relationship with Ireland, we would like to think that our countries would be friendly towards each other. There are two issues that continually arise with respect to Russia and Ireland. One is the ships that are regarded as spy ships off our west coast. Does Russia have spy ships travelling up and down our west coast? The other one is that, as friends, why would Russia's aircraft fly along our west coast with their transponders switched off? Why would that happen? I live in a housing estate and it is like me looking over the wall of a neighbour's house under cover of some sort to see what is going on. One would not expect a friend to do that. I am interested to hear the ambassador's comments on that.

I accept that there was a great deal of media coverage of the Russian exercise in the Atlantic and I accept that it is not an unusual occurrence. All navies have exercises in the Atlantic, so there is nothing unusual about that. However, the location was unusual and I regard it as a provocative move towards Europe more than a provocative move towards Ireland, given Ireland's inability from a defence point of view. Many people in Ireland would have seen it as a provocative move. Clearly, the ambassador's response to the fishermen is welcome and I am delighted Russia decided to move the exercise elsewhere. Can he tell us precisely where it is likely to take place now? Is it true that Russia informed the UK before Ireland was informed that the exercise was to take place? I am interested to know that.

The ambassador spoke about Russia's friends in Belarus and about Russia being a peacekeeping force, a people who want the same freedoms as the rest of the world. What steps has Russia taken to convince the Belarusian authorities that the detention of political prisoners is wrong? What steps has it taken to try to convince those authorities to release them? I hope I am not going too fast for the ambassador.

The ambassador says in his document that states have a right to choose their partners and their friends. Why does it worry Russia so much that they choose to be friendly with NATO countries? NATO is not in Ukraine at present, so why would that worry Russia? With respect to the aerial photographs of the build-up we are seeing, if it is just normal everyday behaviour for the Russian Federation to have so many troops on the border with Ukraine, is the ambassador saying there is an equal number of troops on the borders with Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia? If it has, it must have a massive entire force.

My colleague, Senator Wilson, raised the issue of Georgia. Members of this committee have seen photographs of the area in Georgia that is now covered by Russia. Prior to the occupation, which is what we believe it is, there were villages and farm buildings there.

There was every sign of people living there. Now, it seems to be devoid of all buildings. We are being told, and I would like the ambassador to explain this, that there is constant probing on the borders with Georgia now, which is to say, the enforced borders. We are also being told that farmers and farming families have been separated from their lands and if they try to get back to their lands, they are arrested when they cross the border.

The ambassador says Russian troops are there in a peacekeeping role. Has Russia stood idly and quietly by while whoever is in charge has destroyed buildings and razed entire villages to the ground? Is he aware of that taking place? If he is, who does he blame for it, if it is not a Russian takeover of that particular part of the country?

The last time I spoke to the ambassador about Crimea, he gave me a history lesson. Perhaps he will give a history lesson to the entire committee about Russia's rights to be in Crimea.

Other than that, I wish we could see a de-escalation by all sides of what is going on right now because all it takes is one unforeseen act to drag all of us into some sort of conflict. While my colleagues talk about neutral Ireland, I talk about militarily non-aligned Ireland. There is a slight difference. I do not want to see conflict and conflict does not take a whole lot. I was around in the 1960s during the Cold War and anything could have happened at that time. In the situation we are in now anything could happen again. It only takes one person to do something wrong and the next thing, we have a war on our hands. I thank the ambassador for being here. I hope he will deal with those issues.