If being an unaligned country with a large army is no deterrent to Putin's ambitions is it time for ROI to join Nato?
I mean, it very, very much isn't.
Ireland needs to improve its defences against Russian spying and cyber attacks, but the idea of Russian troops rocking up on bantry bay remains utter fantasyland stuff.
We are now the only European country that Russia can reach without violating NATOs borders. That's very much bordering Russia.
Probably not as big players like Germany with an unhealthy reliance on Russian Energy and Questionable relations of some of the politicians seemed to be ok.
We let the Russians funnel money through the IFSC.
Will this have to be stopped if we join NATO?
You must have missed the link I posted. here is a Quote.
"The latest oversight report on Ireland's spying laws has “sounded the alarm” on the scale of the threat posed by Russian intelligence services to Ireland."
If we were next door to them i would be for it but we're not and they're certainly no threat to us, Irish government is squandering enough of peoples money as it is, don't need to be signing upto this shiote
I'm sure you are aware not all NATO countries border Russia.
Since when did Ireland border Russia?
And now they wont be invading Sweden and Finland either.
Yes, because I'm sure Putin will be invading Ireland very soon, Christ above!
Sorry Vladimir, but we've got new friends now and we're not playing with you any more. Maybe Ireland can be a friend too, sometime in the future?
The point you spectacularly missed in order to mention your nemesis is that there are steps we can take to protect infrastructure but we haven’t. We have hollowed out our defences.
Which is why we are now committing to restoring them (hopefully it is not just placatory kite flying) and senior government ministers spelling out that we don’t need to join NATO to do that.
What a load of codswallop based on 1950s ideas of warfare. You seem to think that a cyber attack is a gang of teenage Shinnerbots piling on Leo on Twitter.
Christ almighty, if you can shut down our air traffic control through a cyber attack, how is that not a physical threat to us?
Was just reading about Gotland which has been described as an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the middle of the Baltic Sea. Do you not think that Ireland could serve a similar purpose as a staging post off the west of Europe?
What value is our neutrality to those who need time to build and benefit from peace? What sort of fairytale nonsense is that? Does it have any real meaning?
A gang of teenage phishers are a threat to us because we haven't resourced those entrusted to protect us nor the equipment/infratstructure neccessary to carry it out. We left ourselves vunerable and criminals took advantage.
Russia nor nobody else is a physical threat to us so Coveney is right when he says 'we won't be joining NATO anytime soon'. Our neutrality is of no value to warmongers or the geopolitical gameplayers but it is and has been to those who need time to build and benefit from peace. Not glamourous or exciting but a valuable thing to offer all the same.
What exactly Ireland should do from a security and defense standpoint is a debate we have to have but what is clear is we have to act as Russia is a clear and present danger to Ireland to the EU and to the democratic world in general. Our current posture of basically having no viable defense and security force is no longer tenable IMHO.
This must be a CT too.
Haha love how you continue to try and distract from the fact of Russia's clear and present danger to Ireland while ignoring the names of just some of those in the Irish government who very publicly stated who attacked our health service.
Hang on a second there and I'll just dig out a Russian government press release where they in great detail set out their agencies' involvement in sponsoring ,cultivating and sheltering cyber espionage and infrastructure attack groups.
The naivety of some people.
No one in Russia makes money without the big lads getting a cut. Or they would be in the ground.
In 74% of all ransomware attacks, the proceeds end up in Russia. These Russian gangs are well known to the Russian authorities but operate with impunity.
So no links to the Russian state, none whatsoever.
So no actual link then? More conspiracy theories.
The government freely acknowledged ( be it Donnolly, Reid, Humphries, Varadkar etc) in public numerous times about the ransom demands and that we were not paying and who it was who did it. It's not exactly esoteric knowledge. Within a short period of the Russians attack on the HSE this was all public knowledge. But you I would say know all that and are instead engaging in a little game of moving the goalposts to avoid acknowledging the fact that Russia is a very clear and present danger to Ireland as demonstrated by their cyber attack on the Irish health service.
Wonder who it is! It's we have to act completely brain dead until something beyond proved, we are capable of making fairly accurate guesses based on what we do know and you d have to really love the Russians to believe that it didn't come from there.
Really? Can you provide a link to any articles that say the Irish government "firmly believe" that the criminal gang is an extension of the Russian state please.
Well I would add in again as I did above that the Irish government firmly believes that the criminal gang in Russia that attack the Irish health service is an extension of the Russian state. That I guess is not good enough for some but for me if the Irish government believe we were cyber attacked by the Russians then I believe them.
There is an Ignore function I will only respond to you in the future if you mention me if that's fair enough for you. As for the Integrity of the forum I believe there are mods for that.
I have a final question for you. You may reply to this or not.
Have you any reply to the other issues I raised as they are a worry for NATO as per the thread title.
MH17, salisbury, Ireland having the 2nd largest amount of Russian "Diplomats"
Ok so again, no actual evidence. Without any evidence it's a conspiracy theory, you have offered nothing to suggest otherwise. My "defence of Russia", stop with that nonsense, next you'll be calling game a Putin bot. I have no love for Russia but I'm calling you out on your nonsense posts. I'm not defending anything except the integrity of the forum. Now unless you can put forward any kind of evidence (you have posted nothing yet) I'm done answering you ok.
No deflection at all. The USA is the only country that has a bigger Embassy staff do you not find that odd. A little Island is 2nd on the list for Russian Interest's. Care to answer the other points I mentioned in your defence of Russia.
More deflection, without any evidence it's just a conspiracy theory similar to the one that suggests the Americans took down the Twin Towers themselves, all nonsense and belongs in the relevant conspiracy theory threads.
Unfortunately people discuss such matters on a discussion forum.
Did Russia attack the HSE strong evidence. you disagree.
Did Russia shoot down mh17 ?
Did Russia cause the salisbury poisoning ?
Largest Embassy in the EU in Ireland just happens that we have all the American companies here. Wanted to extend it not upto anything apparently.
