€1.9 billion worth of Russian assets have been frozen in Ireland. Trade turnover between the countries decreased by 20%. “According to official Irish data, EUR 1.9 billion is frozen here, but this amount does not include the sovereign assets of Russia, that is, the Central Bank, these are private and other companies," said the Russian ambassador to Ireland, Yuriy Filatov, in an interview with Notifications. „In 2023, the trade turnover amounts to about 2 billion dollars - this is approximately minus 20% compared to the previous period and probably an even bigger minus compared to the period before the pandemic.“< /p>
In such conditions, according to Filatov, a substantive dialogue is most likely impossible, since there is simply no topic for it.
The diplomat also commented on public discussions about the possibility of Ireland joining NATO. “The government is trying to push the idea that the situation in the world has changed and geopolitical risks are growing, but nevertheless there are many opinions and they are ambiguous,” said the diplomat.
According to his assumption, the majority tend to believe that Ireland has no business in NATO. The leadership of the alliance sees this and declares that it has no plans to join, Filatov emphasized. He added that, in practice, Ireland is developing an active partnership with the bloc - military-technical, informational and other, while hiding behind "a certain Russian threat".
„We say to the Irish that by God they can make their own decisions, but the main thing is that those decisions must not be based on false premises, and the Russian threat to Ireland is an absolutely false message. no threat. “I proceed from the fact that for us the question of Dublin's membership in the alliance is not of fundamental importance“, concluded the diplomat.