A Government TD has called for the immediate expulsion of Russia’s ambassador to Ireland over his country’s alleged involvement in “possible war crimes” in the Syrian city Aleppo.

There comes a time when a country must choose between taking a robust moral stand or sitting on the fence when a superpower makes a naked land grab on the territory of a weaker neighbour.

In relation to Russian ambassador to Ireland Maxim Peshkov’s comments that future restrictions imposed on Russia would be a “double-edged blade” for the Irish economy, I would like to remind Mr Peshkov that it is not the prerogative of any state to bully another state into changing its policy or values, or indeed annexing the territory of a “brotherly nation”.