The Federal Security Service of Russia has recruited a member of the European Parliament from Latvia, Tatjana Zdanoka, according to an investigation by the Russian publication The Insider. Zdanoka represents the "Russian Union of Latvia" party.
The newspaper claims that Zdanoka worked under the supervision of the FSBʼs Fifth Service servicemen since at least 2004. And since 2005, the deputy has corresponded with her curator — an employee of the St. Petersburg FSB department Dmitry Gladei.
Tatjana Zdanoka
Tatjana Ždanoka / Facebook
The first letters to Gladey in Zdanokaʼs hacked inbox are dated October 3, 2005. Then Zdanoka sent two attachments, one of which is an unpublished draft of the agenda of the conference in Tallinn and Narva, which was sponsored by two parliamentary blocs — the Greens faction of the European Parliament and the European Free Alliance. The second attachment is a draft press release about the conference.
In the same year, the Internal Security Service of Estonia stated in its public report that the "European Russian Alliance", of which Zdanoka is a member, is a cover for the FSB, its creation was "prepared in St. Petersburg and presented as a triumph in a report directly to the director of the FSB." According to the correspondence, Zdanoka met Gladey several times in Europe and Moscow, but the purpose and nature of their personal conversations were never mentioned in the letters.
Fragments of the correspondence of MEP Tatjana Zdanoka with Russian FSB agent Dmytro Gladey.
Fragments of the correspondence of MEP Tatjana Zdanoka with Russian FSB agent Dmitriy Gladey.
Zdanoka organized public hearings in the European Parliament, devoted to the attitude of the Estonian authorities to violent protests in Tallinn after the removal of a monument to a Soviet soldier. She also launched the radio program "Hour of the Russian School", in which she warned Russians living in Latvia about "possible problems associated with sending children from Russian families to Latvian-language schools." She also prepared an exhibition at the European Parliament called "Russians of Latvia" to introduce ethnic Russians to the indigenous population of Latvia.
Journalists claim that in April 2010, Zdanoka sent Gladey a draft plan for the celebration of the Russian Victory Day in Latvia. Zdanoka asked for $6,000 in addition to the funding she was supposed to receive as an official organizer and member of the European Parliament. The money, in particular, was to be spent on the purchase of St. Georgeʼs ribbons.
The publication found that Gladey worked with Zdanoka until 2013. Later, he virtually introduced her to Sergey Krasin — Zdanoka sent him reports in the future. She cooperated with more than one FSB agent: already in 2014, Zdanoka applied to the Belgian embassy in Moscow to obtain a Schengen visa for Artem Kureev, who supervised Sergei Seredenko.
That is, Zdanoka did not just send her supervisors from the FSB reports on the work done, but also used her status as a member of the European Parliament to help them enter the territory of the European Union, the journalists claim.
In response to the investigation, Zdanoka herself stated that she had never cooperated with Russian agents. Zdanoka emphasized that hacking personal correspondence without the sanction of law enforcement agencies is unacceptable and constitutes theft of personal data, and added that "she will not be intimidated."
"I and my like-minded people will continue to use the rostrum of the European Parliament to fight neo-fascism," she said.
- Zdanokaʼs mandate as a member of the European Parliament expires this year. Earlier, she was expelled from the European Green faction for refusing to condemn the invasion of Ukraine.