The Insider revealed that Tatjana Ždanoka, a Latvian member of the European Parliament, has been an agent of Russian intelligence from at least 2004 to 2017, based on leaked emails.
The investigative report conducted by The Insider, in collaboration with Delfi Estonia, Latvia’s Re:Baltica, and Sweden’s Expressen, has brought to light that Tatjana Ždanoka, a Latvian member of the European Parliament, has been significantly linked to Russian intelligence since at least 2005.
“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,” The Insider wrote.
Furthermore, the correspondence included discussions about organizing meetings in Moscow or Brussels with her handlers and requests for Russian financial support for her political endeavors in Latvia and the European Parliament, according to The Insider. One notable request was for funds to organize a rally commemorating the Red Army’s victory in World War II, indicating a direct effort to foster a narrative favorable to Russian interests in her work.
The Insider says it has documented Tatjana Ždanoka’s two case officers of the FSB, the Russian security service, the successor to the Soviet-times KGB. The leaked emails reportedly showed that her first documented handler, an FSB veteran from the St. Petersburg central directorate named Dmitry Gladey, aged 74, was involved with Ždanoka from around 2004 to 2013. After Gladey, Ždanoka’s contact shifted to Sergei Beltyukov, who has been an operative with the FSB since 1993.
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