Protesters urged to keep demos peaceful following Russian embassy truck incident

A man was arrested after a lorry crashed into the gates of the Russian Embassy in Dublin (Dominic McGrath/PA)

Gardaí have urged anti-war protesters to keep within the law after a truck was driven through the gates of the Russian embassy.

Security has been bolstered at the embassy in Dublin following Monday’s incident. A man appeared in court on Tuesday morning charged with dangerous driving and criminal damage.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar earlier condemned the incident, branding it “foolish and unhelpful”.

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar branded the incident ‘foolish and unhelpful’ (Niall Carson/PA)

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris rejected a claim by the Russian authorities that gardai stood “idle” while the vehicle reversed through the gates.

Following Monday’s incident, the Russian embassy issued a statement of condemnation.

While the initial statement criticised the response of the gardaí, a second statement later welcomed additional security measures put in place by the Garda.

Mr Harris said he did not accept that gardai had stood idly by, noting there was a swift arrest in the aftermath.

“Where there’s been other incidents as well, individuals are now in the criminal justice system,” he added.

We’ve made detections in all of those instances, so to say we were standing idly by is not correct.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said it was not correct to say officers stood idly by (Niall Carson/PA)

Asked about the cost of the beefed-up security, Mr Harris said: “We have a responsibility obviously to protect all the ambassadors and embassies here in Ireland as part of our function as a policing service and so, in effect, these costs are met by our overall budget and our responsibility that we have.

“And so with the security arrangements at the Russian embassy they will be regularly assessed.”

He said security measures will be “proportionate and necessary”.

The Commissioner said it is important that protests stay within the law.

“There’s a lot of tension and people are protesting, as they’re entitled to do, but it is a time of high emotion and frustration amongst those protesters.

“What we’d say to them, you are entitled to protest, but you must follow the directions of gardai on duty and obviously you must not commit offences.”