Latvian MEP Tatjana Ždanoka has been an agent of the Fifth Directorate of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) since at least 2005, working with two intelligence contacts, the investigative media centre The Insider has revealed.
The Insider has carried out the investigation with Delfi Estonia, Latvia’s Re:Baltica, and Sweden’s Expressen.
Ždanoka has been working in the European Parliament since 2004 and has been an outspoken supporter of the Moscow regime throughout this time.
Leaked emails of the Latvian politician’s correspondence with her FSB contacts show that one of the MEP’s duties was to stir up pro-Kremlin sentiment in the Baltic region. She held meetings with FSB intelligence officers in Moscow and Brussels and solicited money from Russian sources for her political activities and events commemorating the Soviet Army.
Ždanoka also held remote hearings to defend Algirdas Paleckis, who was convicted in Lithuania for spying for Russia. She and other members of the Latvian Russian Union came to Vilnius in support of Paleckis in 2021. They took part in a rally in front of the LRT building and later in Lukiškių Square.
Ždanoka is of Russian origin and received Latvian citizenship in 1996. Her political career has been built on support for Russia. In 2009, the then newly appointed Russian Ambassador Georgy Muradov openly urged Latvian Russians to vote for her.
In 2014, she travelled to Russian-occupied Crimea to participate as an “international observer” in the internationally unrecognised referendum on joining Russia. In March 2022, Ždanoka was one of 13 MEPs who voted against the EP resolution condemning Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In Latvia, the MEP has long been considered an agent of Russian influence. She has often spoken against the alleged mistreatment of Russian minorities in the Baltic states, and her activism has been supported by Kremlin-funded groups.
Much of her work in the EP has focused on the alleged persecution of the Russian language in Latvia.
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