Probe opened into Latvian MEP accused of spying for Russia

The European Parliament on Monday launched an investigation into allegations that Tatjana Ždanoka, a Latvian member of the EU legislature, has been working as a Russian spy for years.

The charges, which Ždanoka denies, were made in an article published Monday by the Insider, a Russian investigative newspaper. The report said Ždanoka has been working on behalf of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

“Investigations within the European Parliament have been opened” into the newspaper’s claims, a Parliament spokesperson said on Monday.

Parliament President Roberta Metsola “takes these allegations very seriously and is referring the case to the Advisory Committee on the Code of Conduct,” the spokesperson said. “She will also bring the issue to the Parliament’s Conference of Presidents on Wednesday.”

Ždanoka was one of just 13 MEPs who voted against a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022.

In a video posted on her Facebook account, Ždanoka strongly denied the claims made by the Insider. “I have never been associated with the KGB, unlike many well-known Latvian figures, and I have not cooperated with any other intelligence agencies,” she said.

The European Free Alliance (EFA) party said in a statement that it has launched its own investigation into the matter. Some EFA party MEPs sit with the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament. Ždanoka was asked to leave the Greens/EFA group in April 2022 over her refusal to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Her national party remains part of the EFA umbrella-level party.

The head of the Parliament’s legal affairs committee, Spanish MEP Adrián Vázquez Lázara, said on X that his centrist group has asked for the entire chamber to debate what he called “RussianGate” next week. “It would be intolerable for there to be MEPs on the Kremlin’s payroll working to destroy European democracy from the inside,” he wrote.

The Insider’s article was based on an investigation conducted in collaboration with Estonian news outlet Delfi, Latvian investigative journalism center Re:Baltica and Swedish daily tabloid  Expressen. It alleges that Ždanoka was “working on behalf of the FSB’s Fifth Service, reporting to two different handlers from at least 2004 to 2017.”

“Leaked emails between Ždanoka and her two known Russian case officers include explicit, detailed reports from Ždanoka to her handlers describing her work as a European legislator, particularly as those official duties relate to fostering pro-Kremlin sentiment in her native Baltic region,” according to the report.

The Latvian security service VDD also said it will investigate the allegations. Ždanoka’s immunity as a member of the European Parliament “was an important factor in [facilitating her] activities in support of Russia’s geopolitical interests,” the VDD said.

“Assisting a foreign state to undermine Latvia is only criminally liable since 2016. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Ždanoka’s support for it actually prompted the legal changes,” the VDD said in a statement.

The European Parliament cannot kick out the MEP or stop her from voting even if she is found to have breached the code of conduct. The strongest punishments the Parliament can level against a sitting lawmaker is docking their daily financial allowance for 60 days or banning her from taking part in some of the Parliament’s activities for the same period.

She recently announced that she will not seek re-election to the European Parliament in June but that Inna Djeri would top her party’s list. Ždanoka currently employs Djeri as a local assistant, along with 11 others.

Ždanoka is one of the leaders of the Latvian-Russian Union (locally known LKS), a fringe pro-Kremlin party that has remained outside the national parliament for 14 years. The party supported Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Ždanoka refused to denounce the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Bulgarian MEP Ilhan Kyuchyuk said the Parliament “must act divisively to root out all bad actors in our chamber.” “It cannot continue to be a running joke that the European Parliament is full of spies or corrupt politicians,” Kyuchyuk said on X.

Koen Verhelst and Sergey Goryashko contributed reporting.