Russia's FSB recruited European Parliament member from Latvia, investigation reveals

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has recruited Tatjana Ždanoka, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Latvia who represents the Latvian Russian Union party.

According to an investigation by Re:Baltica, The Insider, Delfi.ee and Expressen news outlets, Ždanoka has been in contact with her handlers from the FSB's Fifth Service since at least 2004, asking them for financial support to organise events.

Her known handler Dmitry Gladei, an officer of the FSB's St Petersburg department, has been in contact with her since 2005.

One of the emails exchanged with Russia contained two files: a draft agenda for a conference in Tallinn and Narva sponsored by two parliamentary blocs (the Greens–European Free Alliance and the European Free Alliance), and a draft press release about the conference.

The same year, the Kaitsepolitseiamet (KaPo or Estonian Internal Security Service) publicly stated in a report that the European Russian Alliance, of which Ždanok is a member, is a puppet of the FSB. Its creation was "planned in St Petersburg and presented as a triumph in a report directly to the FSB chief".

Based on the correspondence, Ždanoka regularly met with Gladei in both Europe and Moscow, although the purpose and nature of their in-person conversations were never mentioned in the letters.

In addition, Ždanoka, among other things, organised public hearings in the European Parliament on the attitude of the Estonian authorities to the violent protests in Tallinn after a monument to a Soviet soldier was demolished.

Ždanoka also ran a radio programme in Latvia entitled "Russian School Time", in which she warned Russians living in the country about "possible problems associated with sending children from Russian families to Latvian [medium] schools". She also noted that she was preparing an upcoming exhibition in the European Parliament entitled "Russians of Latvia", which would aim to present ethnic Russians as the true indigenous population of Latvia.

On 9 April 2010, Ždanoka sent Gladei a draft plan to promote the celebration of Victory Day in Latvia. This proposal included a request for US$6,000 in addition to the funding that Ždanoka was to receive from the European Parliament as the official organiser.

The funding would be used for various purposes. One of them was to buy St George's ribbons [a Russian propaganda symbol, banned in Ukraine – ed.], and a documentary about Latvian veterans' trips to Austria and Belgium, to participate in the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Vienna from the Nazi regime, was also to be created.

Gladei continued to work with Ždanoka until 2013. Afterwards, he remotely introduced her to a man named Sergei Krasin, to whom she began sending intelligence reports directly.

Other handlers also made use of the Latvian MEP.

In her statement to the media, quoted by Delfi, Tatjana Ždanoka claimed that she "is not and never was cooperating with the secret services". The investigation into her links to Russian FSB officers may be linked to the Holocaust commemoration event, the MP believes.

In a statement to the media, Ždanoka noted that gaining access to personal correspondence without the authorisation of law enforcement agencies is unacceptable and constitutes identity theft, which is itself a criminal offence.

"I declare that I will not be intimidated. My like-minded people and I will continue to use the platform of the European Parliament to fight neo-fascism," she said in a statement.

Earlier, Boris Katkov, 82, chairman of the Latvia-Russia Cooperation Association, military pensioner and citizen of the Russian Federation was expelled from Latvia.

Reports indicated that Latvia may expel 1,167 Russian citizens who have not fulfilled the requirements spelled out in the amended immigration law and have not submitted the documents required to obtain a residence permit in the country.