An ad placed by a Dublin-based solicitor in a Russian-language newspaper based in Ireland in 2023 offered a free consultation to “compatriots”.
What Elizaveta Donnery’s offer didn’t mention was that the service would be funded by the Kremlin through Pravfond, an organisation established in 2012 with the stated goal of protecting the rights of Russians living abroad, primarily by offering assistance in legal matters.
However, the EU and European intelligence agencies say Pravfond does much more than that in some countries.
While Pravfond is used in Ireland solely for funding the provision of legal advice to Russian expats, it is used for different purposes in other countries.
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In these countries, it is designed to act as a safety net for Russian intelligence assets – agents or spies – who get into legal trouble abroad, according to western security services. In some countries, it also provides cover stories for these spies.
Now, a new investigative project, co-ordinated by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an independent network of journalists, reveals for the first time the activity of Pravfond across dozens of countries, activity that has continued despite the imposition of EU sanctions in 2023.
The journalists – including Irish Times crime and security correspondent Conor Gallagher – sifted through an archive of Pravfond’s records with 55,000 emails and 20,000 documents to examine the extent of the organisation’s operations.
He found another Irish-based Russian solicitor, Olga Shajaku, mentioned in the documents. There is no documentary evidence showing that she ever received funds from Pravfond but in one email, sent in 2016, contained within internal Pravfond records, she provided the organisation with the bank details of her firm‘s client account.
Unlike certain Pravfond-funded operations in other countries, there is nothing to suggest that Donnery or other Russians in Ireland supported by Pravfond engaged in intelligence gathering, influence operations or illegal activity.
So what is Pravfond and what role has it played in funding propaganda operations designed to improve Russia’s reputation abroad?
And why would the Kremlin be interested in funding free legal aid to its diaspora in Ireland?
The Russian Embassy in Dublin rejects the findings of the reporting project, calling them “preposterous allegations” and noting that Pravfond provides “legal assistance in cases of violations of the rights, freedoms, and legitimate interests of compatriots, in full accordance with universally recognised humanitarian principles and norms of international human rights law”.
Gallagher tells In the News about the investigation and Pravfond’s activities. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.
