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Irish politicians deny Kremlin ties after ‘Cobalt’ espionage claims

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Members of the Irish parliament are denying having any connections with the Kremlin after reports of a Russian asset among politicians in Dublin.

The story began with an report in the UK’s Sunday Times that detailed a Russian influence operation had captured an unnamed “agent of influence inside the Irish political establishment”, whom the paper nicknamed “Cobalt” and identified as male.

The story has left members of the Irish parliament, or Oireachtas, to deny that they are the alleged asset, whom the Sunday Times claimed may have been pressured via the gathering of compromising personal information, or “kompromat”, or via a honeypot operation.

The paper reported that Cobalt has been extensively investigated by Irish security services.

However, addressing the lower house on Thursday, Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister Micheál Martin denied having been alerted to any active Russian espionage operation in Irish politics during his time as Taoiseach between June 2020 and December 2022.

“I received security briefings, but I was never told, and never briefed, that there was a spy in the Oireachtas,” he said.

“There’s a more fundamental question to be asked which I’m going to ask as minister of defence, because as minister of defence, I’ve never received a security briefing saying there’s a spy in the Oireachtas. There may be, there may not be, but I’ve never been briefed.”

Several parliamentarians have taken the unusual step of ruling themselves out as the real Cobalt. One senator from Martin’s party, Timmy Dooley, told his colleagues in the chamber this week that they needed to do so for the sake of parliament’s reputation.

“I think its important in order to avoid any potential stain on this house, that members would voluntarily make a statement that they are not the subject of any investigation or that they have never been in the clutches of Russia. And before I sit down, I can declare that I am not such person.”

Neutral, but vulnerable

Aside from Cobalt’s identity, the question raised by the original report is why Russia would be targeting Ireland with espionage in the first place.

The two countries have long had less than cordial relations, and there is a history of Russian spies using Ireland as a base for operating within the EU. Plans to expand the Russian embassy in Dublin in 2018 were thrown out by the Irish government when it emerged they contained suspicious elements that could have housed spying facilities.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ireland has accepted tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees. The Irish government has strongly supported the Ukrainian war effort, and it has sent nearly €400 million in humanitarian aid in the last two-and-a-half years.

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However, Ireland is not a part of NATO and has long maintained a policy of military neutrality, maintaining only a relatively small army whose principal role is to participate in multilateral peacekeeping missions.

Under domestic law, for the army to deploy more than 12 soldiers to a combat zone, it must seek a mandatory resolution from the United Nations Security Council, a formal decision from the Irish government, and the approval of the lower house of parliament.

Polling shows that the neutrality policy remains popular among the Irish electorate. However, domestic critics of the so-called “triple lock” argue that it essentially gives adversaries on the UN Security Council a veto over Irish military action — and that Ireland is essentially working on the assumption that its Western allies would come to its defence if necessary.

Germany’s business groups alarmed over land border controls impacting economy

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Germany’s business groups are raising the alarm over fears that the country’s newly reintroduced land border controls could impact the economy.

The country’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry says companies are experiencing delays, which is especially problematic for time-sensitive goods such as food.

However, it’s not just the movement of products that is of concern, but of people.

The Chamber of Commerce in Frankfurt Oder, a border town near Poland, is advocating that workers coming into Germany pass through the checks more quickly with special government certificates.

“We have seen and experienced with the enterprises in our region that they are now having problems commuting,” said Daniel Felscher, a consultant at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ostbrandenburg.

“Also regarding the traffic of goods between the borders and especially with the workforce that Germany relies on in specific economic areas, we have to have those commuters, and we cannot lose them because we need them.”

Frank Huster, the managing director of the Federal Association for Freight Forwarding and Logistics (DSLV), told Euronews that his organisation was especially concerned about whether other European countries would bring back border checks.

Huster urged Germany to implement the green lanes policy that was in place during the pandemic, which allowed freight vehicles to pass through border crossings quickly.

“Road checks when entering Germany could also delay many trucks crossing the border. This also affects cross-border commuters who work in German logistics facilities. Restrictions on the free movement of persons can therefore also mean delays and cost increases for the economy,” Huster said.

“A return to barriers in Europe would be disastrous for the free movement of goods and the internal market.”

Extra checks to increase recession risk?

The extra border checks were put in place last month after the so-called Islamic State group claimed responsibility for an attack at a festival where three people were stabbed to death.

The interior ministry says the checks are meant to decrease irregular migration and stop criminals.

“We want to reduce irregular migration further, stop migrant smugglers and criminals, and detect Islamists before they can do any harm,” said Nancy Faeser.

“We continue to work closely with our neighbouring countries. We want to make sure that border control measures affect cross-border commuters and people living in the border regions, as well as businesses and commerce, as little as possible.”

The credit insurer Allianz Trade said it expected delays could decrease trade and increase the risk of a recession.

“The additional waiting times at the borders are also likely to increase transport and goods costs for imports by around 1.7% (services: 1.5%) and thus reduce both the overall trade volume and competitiveness, which is already at a low level for German manufacturers,” Allianz Trade stated in an email to Euronews.

“The temporary border controls could furthermore trigger a chain reaction: trade could lose up to €1.1 billion per year in the worst case. As a result, recession risks could increase further and possibly lead to economic losses in gross domestic product (GDP) of up to around €11.5 billion.”

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An association representing Germany’s transport and logistics industry has also warned the checks could end up increasing costs for companies, leading to higher prices for consumers.

“There could be traffic jams or there could be delays, which will increase the cost for our truck companies, and they will have problems with driving and rest time, and they have to get higher prices for the transport solution, and this is a big problem,” said Dirk Engelhardt, the CEO of the Federal Association of Road Haulage, Logistics, and Disposal (BGL).

The group says if such delays happen, it will lobby the European Commission to set up special lanes so that most trucks can bypass the controls and to focus on tougher external border checks.

‘Everywhere, every day’: How the EU’s drugs agency is tackling a new surge

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Across the European Union, there is a growing diversification of illegal drugs and increasing violence linked to organised crime.

But there are also new solutions and enhanced forms of cooperation, according to Alexis Goosdeel, Executive Director of the European Union Drugs Agency. He outlined these in detail to Isabel Marques da Silva in The Global Conversation.  

Goosdeel began by clarifying that new illicit substances, including so-called “pink cocaine,” are not classified as drugs. “This is why we call them, also, new psychoactive substances,” he says.

“They have a psychoactive effect on the brain, but they are not yet classified as a drug. So over the last 27 years, we have established and developed a European drug alert system on those substances, and we have detected more than 950 of them that never appeared on the European market before. And some of them have the potential to be harmful for health or to have even lethal consequences.”

“So, the ‘pink cocaine’ is also called 2C in Latin America or in Spain, for instance. It comes from the chemical name, which is 2C-B.” Goosdeel continues.

“But what we observe is that, in many cases, there are other substances – for instance, ketamine,  which is a specific substance becoming more problematic – appearing a bit everywhere. For instance, we made a survey on the Internet among people who declared they are consuming substances, and up to 10% of them have declared consuming, at least once in the last two months, ketamine.

“The major trend and the major risk is, as we describe it, ‘everywhere, everything, everyone’. Drugs are everywhere today, whether they’re being smuggled to Europe or produced on the territory of the EU,” Goosdeel stresses.

“Everything can be the object of an addictive behaviour. So the distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs, illicit and licit doesn’t encompass all the complexity, and there is polydrug use. And then, as a consequence, everyone can personally or indirectly have an episode – acute or chronic – of addictive behaviour to one of those substances.”

‘Chemsex’ drugs

The rise of new narcotics doesn’t mean the use of “traditional” hard drugs is waning. It’s a complex picture and one that is constantly changing, Goosdeel says. “It’s a market in perpetual movement.

Cannabis and cannabis derivates are still the first substances being used in Europe. Cocaine is now much more widespread because of a surge, the huge increase in production and availability.

“But also we see an increase in production of amphetamine and ‘chemsex’ that is the practice of using substances to sustain long sexual activity and having sexual intercourse with many partners – especially males having sex with males. But what we see in that case is usually they can use, for instance, methamphetamine, which before was not very widespread in Europe. But what we see is that, over time, they may be an extension of the population that is using the substances. So, this means we have important risks and important problems and challenges, and we need also to be much more agile compared to what the situation was 20 or 30 years ago.”

Surge in drug-related violence

The growing use of illegal drugs is directly linked to an increase in the activities of gangs across the continent, as it’s criminal organisations who import and distribute illicit produce from Latin America and other parts of the world. More gangs involved in this underground trade inevitably means more violence, as Goosdeel has witnessed.

“There is the threat to the rule of law, yes. And certainly, for me, what is the most worrying development in the last seven or eight years is the huge increase in drug-related violence in the EU. This means that 10 years ago when we were working with the European Commission, helping the Commission to design a strategy for drug-related violence, it was about Central America. Today we speak about the European Union.”

“What I think we will see today is also the result of an evolution that probably took ten years, that was boosted, among other things, by the COVID pandemic. Because now most of the drugs are coming through containers, which was not the case before. But I think that what we see now is the tip of the iceberg, which was not visible before. And also, before, we had huge challenges, for instance, with the fight against terrorism. So, this means, probably, we have not really seen the first signs that the organised criminal groups were changing their way of organising themselves. And what we see is that unfortunately now it’s everywhere. It’s almost every day, if not every day, every week, in all, or most of the EU member states.”

Click on the video above to see the interview in full.

Five U.S. States Reach Settlement With GS Partners, Investors to Get Full Refunds

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Teksas Eyalet Menkul Değerler Konseyi’nin (TSSB) pazartesi günü yaptığı duyuruya nazaran, Dubai’deki bir gökdelende yapılan tokenleştirilmiş yatırımlar da dahil olmak üzere çeşitli kripto yatırım planlarının gerisindeki Avrupa operasyonu olan GS Partners ile beş ABD eyaleti, yatırımcılara paralarının %100’ünü geri verecek bir uzlaşma mutabakatına vardı.

Tez edilen planın tam boyutu bilinmiyor, lakin operasyonun kendisi, Teksas’ın öncülüğündeki bir küme eyalet menkul değer düzenleyicisinin GS Partners’ın sahibi Josip Heit ve şirketlerini soruşturmaya başlamasından bir ay evvel, geçen Eylül prestijiyle 1 milyar dolarlık satış yaptığını argüman etti. Kasım ortasından itibaren, 10 ABD eyaletindeki ve bir Kanada eyaletindeki düzenleyiciler, Heit ve şirketlerine karşı dolandırıcılık teziyle yaptırım hareketleri başlattı ve menkul değer satışını derhal durdurmalarını emretti.

GS Partners, eski profesyonel boksör Floyd Mayweather dahil olmak üzere bir tanıtımcı ve ünlü sözcüler ağı kullanarak potansiyel yatırımcılara çıkarlı getiriler vaat eden çeşitli kripto ile ilgili yatırımlar satan artık faaliyette olmayan çok düzeyli bir pazarlama planıdır. Bu yatırımlar ortasında sanal arazi modülleri ve eski “Lydian World” meta cihanında bir pay havuzu, teze nazaran altın takviyeli bir kripto token ve Dubai’deki bir gökdelenin tokenleştirilmiş paylarını temsil ettiği argüman edilen kuponlar yer alıyordu.

Yatırımcılara, her biri 36 katlı kulenin bir inç karesini temsil eden kuponların – “görkemli bir gökdelen… çölün rüzgarlarından ilham alan ve yakıcı güneşin altında parıldarken ihtişam saçan” olarak tanımlandı – ünitelerin kiralanmasından pasif gelir elde etmelerine imkan sağlayacağı söylendi. GS Partners 175 milyon dolarlık satış amaçlarına ulaşamayınca, kuponların kıymeti neredeyse sıfıra düştü.

Teksas, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas ve Georgia eyaletlerinin Heit ve şirketleriyle vardığı uzlaşma muahedesinin bir kesimi olarak, GS Partners’a karşı açılan tüm tüzel davalar sonuçlandırıldı ve soruşturmalar düşürüldü. Bunun karşılığında GS Partners, müşterilerinin uzlaşmaya varılan eyaletlerde yaptıkları yatırımların tamamını iade edecek.

Texas Eyalet Menkul Değerler Heyeti’nde Uygulama Müdürü olan Joe Rotunda, CoinDesk’e yaptığı açıklamada, müşterilerin paralarını geri almanın kurumları için bir öncelik olduğunu söyledi.

“Sadece maddi mali yardım sağlamakla kalmayıp, %100 mali yardım sağlamak hayli sıra dışıdır,” dedi. “Bu, eyalet düzenleyicileri olarak her vakit konuştuğumuz bir şeydir – bu fırsatlar ortaya çıktığında, onları değerlendirmeliyiz.”

Yerleşen eyaletlerdeki düzenleyiciler, kurumlarına ödenecek mali cezaları takip etme yetkilerinden feragat ettiler. Sivil para cezaları birçok eyalet ve federal uygulama aksiyonunun ortak bir sonucudur, fakat Rotunda kurumunun önceliğinin Teksaslı yatırımcılar olduğunu söyledi.

“Bu yalnızca bir öncelik sorunu. Önceliğimiz müşteriler için kurtarma sağlamaktı,” dedi Rotunda. “Varlıklarını alıp para cezası olarak devlete gönderme fikri nitekim midemi bulandırıyor… Bu yüzden, müşteri mevduatlarının %100’ünü geri alma fırsatı manasına geliyorsa, dolandırıcılık tezlerini memnuniyetle reddettik.”

Uzlaşma muahedesi, katılmayan eyaletlerin yahut federal düzenleyicilerin Heit ve şirketleri hakkında hukuksal yahut cezai soruşturmalar başlatmasını engellemiyor.

Pazartesi günü beyaz ayakkabı hukuk firması Quinn Emanuel’deki avukatları tarafından yayınlanan bir basın açıklamasında Heit, muahedeyi memnuniyetle karşıladığını belirterek şunları ekledi: “Talep süreci boyunca tüm uygun müşterilere geri ödeme yapmaya kararlıyız. Müşterilerimiz her vakit evvel gelir. Markayı, prestijimizi ve müşterilerimizi korumak en büyük önceliğimizdir.”

Rotunda, AlixPartners LP tarafından yönetilen talep sürecinin Ekim ayında açılmasını ve 90 gün sürmesini beklediğini söyledi. Heit ve şirketleri, mutabakatlarının bir modülü olarak AlixPartners’ın fiyatlarının maliyetini karşılayacak.

Rotunda, “Teksas’ta, bu davanın hukuk sistemimizde hızlandırılması için hakikaten çabalasak bile, müvekkillerin varlıklarını iade etmelerine kadar mahkemede kanıt sunabileceğimiz noktaya bile gelemeyiz” dedi.