You sometimes wonder what it takes to tell an ambassador from another country to pack the bags and take a hike.
In the case of Yury Anatoliyevich Filatov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Ireland, it would seem that packing those bags would only follow a parade of Russian tanks down O'Connell Street. Maybe.
The Irish are a very tolerant people. And right now they are a distracted people. The pay scandal in RTE has been labeled a crisis in some reports. Many around the world would give their eye teeth for a "crisis" of this mini-magnitude.
Amid all the hand wringing over RTE, Ambassador Filatov has been quiet, perhaps enjoying the fact that those dreadfully nosy Irish reporters are distracted and not bombarding him with questions such as why does his country feel the need to murder Ukrainian civilians on a night out for pizza.
Old Yury can be slippery of course. He might charge that the pizza was made in the Pentagon and was helping the Ukrainian war effort.
His excellency did surface momentarily in May when he described the debate over ending Ireland's so-called triple lock as being “deeply flawed."
As the Irish Times reported, "part of Ireland’s neutrality stance, the triple lock means that a mandate from the United Nations (UN), agreement by the Government and a vote in the Dáil is required for Irish peacekeepers to be deployed abroad on missions of more than 12 personnel."
According to the Times, government Ministers including Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin and Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney said they were no longer comfortable with the triple lock as a country like Russia, which is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, could veto Ireland’s future participation in UN missions.
In a statement, Ambassador Filatov said Russia had never been an obstacle to Irish participation in UN peacekeeping missions.
Somebody in the department of this or that is presumably combing through files to see how true or false this might be. He or she might come up with ancient documents describing how the Soviet Union, so beloved by Filatov's boss Vladimir Putin, was once an obstacle to actual Irish membership of said United Nations.
But that is ancient history. Back to just April of last year when this page opined in part: "The visage and voice of Yury Anatoliyevich Filatov are a familiar combination in Ireland of late. Filatov, of course, is Russia's ambassador to Dublin. He has a big job on his hands: defending the indefensible.
"Filatov - who pre-February 24 described predictions of a Russian invasion as 'fantasy' and the very idea of it as being 'insane' - has been moaning about the way that his embassy and its staff has been treated by the troublesome Irish.
"He has accused protesters of being 'rough and really aggressive' at the Dublin embassy and of intimidating staff and vandalizing the embassy’s entrance.
"In an interview with the state-owned Russia 24 television station, Filatov said the situation in Ireland was 'frankly difficult' and he accused Ireland of being to the forefront of “anti-Russian events” in the European Union.
Filatov should check out Ukraine for something that truly meets the definition of 'frankly difficult.'
"He is now tasked with defending growing reports of up close murder, rape and pillage by Russian troops in the area north of Kyiv, not to mention weeks of cowardly long distance bombardment aimed at civilians in the north, east and south of Ukraine.
"If a diplomat in a time of war does his or her best to tamp things down and keep open lines of sane and sensible communication, even with a host government that takes strong issue with the diplomat's own government, then everything should be done to make sure that the hosted diplomat stays put, and is accorded full recognition and protection. If the hosted diplomat insists on publicly spouting propaganda and lies, that is another matter entirely.
"Now it remains to be seen how Filatov responds to the latest accusations of genocide being leveled by Ukraine that his bosses in Moscow are, predictably, dismissing as 'fake.'
"But other reports are pointing out that barbarous attacks on defenseless civilians have long been Russia's modus operandi, most significantly in recent years in Chechnya and Aleppo in Syria. The Russian military, simply put, is little more than a barbarian horde.
"Behind the walls of the Russian embassy compound on Dublin's Orwell Road there is not a horde per se. The embassy was home base to a staff of thirty until four members were ordered to leave last week for activities incompatible with their diplomatic status. For that phrasing we can read spies.
"Diplomatic relations between Dublin and Moscow may well survive events in Ukraine, at least in a formal sense. But they can't be normal, not now, not for a long time, perhaps never again.
"If Ambassador Filatov parrots Moscow's line about atrocities in Ukraine being fake news it might be time for the Irish government to consider his status - as a guest of the nation so to speak.
"Lithuania sent the Russian ambassador packing this week, so Ireland would not be the first EU member nation to undertake such a high level expulsion.
But showing Yury Filatov Ireland's door should now, at the very least, be on Dublin's diplomatic front burner - as Ukraine literally burns."
That was written fifteen months ago. There is a word used by copy editors: "stet." It means do not change, leave as written. Those words of April, 2022 still hold. Stet!
