Saturday, February 15, 2025

Suspected Russian agent worked for Willie Penrose in Mullingar

A suspected Russian agent who once worked briefly in Willie Penrose’s Mullingar constituency office has been expelled from Australia on national security grounds.

Marina Sologub (39) is Kazakhstan-born, ethnically Russian and has Irish citizenship after spending her teenage years in Clanmire, Co. Cork before going on to study politics in UCC.

She was working as a consultant in Australia when an operation carried out by the  national security agency there uncovered Ms Sologub as a “potential threat” before cancelling her visa last week as a result.

The suspected agent’s LinkedIn profiled claimed that she worked as a personal assistant to Willie Penrose for one year and five months, in 2008 and 2009. This is disputed by the former Labour Party TD.

“She seems to have embellished her CV a bit, which a lot of people do,” said Willie.

“She was only there for a few weeks. We love to facilitate young people coming in for work experience and there must have been a hundred more like her.

“I can’t remember her face. If she shot me I wouldn’t be able to pick her out. I don’t remember having any contact with her face-to-face, but I obviously would have met her, I just can’t recall.

“She [Marina] was in doing work experience, apparently, I think it must have been around 2008. I would have been gone most of the time and rarely in the office, maybe one day a week or the odd evening.”

Marina has lived in Australia since 2020 where she has held a number of jobs in the space industry, most recently for a company in the city of Marion, South Australia.

Mr Penrose said he was “shocked and surprised” to hear the news a suspected Russian agent had been under his nose, however briefly it was. “I wouldn’t have believed it only for my secretary recalled her [Marina] somewhat,” he said.

“She would have only been doing postage, photocopying and tasks like that and there wouldn’t have been any sensitive information around.

“I’m not concerned at all about any of it, but it’s a funny one and a lot of people are having a good laugh over it!”

The 36-year-old Irish national claims to have worked for Fine Gael TD Bernard Allen in Cork for a number of months as well as Irelands National Space Centre in Midleton, Cork, for six years.

It has been confirmed by the Department of Foreign Affairs that they have been contacted by Marina Sologub seeking consular assistance.

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