The Latvian MEP Tatjana Zdanoka, An ally of the Catalan independence movement, it worked with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) for two decades. This emerges from a journalistic investigation that collects emails exchanged between the politician and her connections in Moscowfor example, to organize personal meetings or to report on the initiatives taken to spread pro-Russian messages.
This is shown by the investigation published this Monday by the magazine “The Insider” and in which other media from the Baltic and Nordic countries are also involved Zdanoka has been a Russian intelligence asset since at least 2004., when he began maintaining contacts with an experienced FSB member named Dimitri Gladey. He was her liaison until 2013, when the MEP spoke to another agent, Sergei Beltyukov.
The MEP even asked for money to finance her political work. both in Latvia and in the European Parliament. According to the investigation, at least once he asked for funds for a rally to commemorate the Soviet Army’s victory in World War II.
Zdanoka has claimed that he knows “thousands of people” and although he has said that he has no contacts with a person named Beltiukov – he could have used a code name – he has confirmed that he first saw Gladey in the beginning the seventies” during some ski courses. However, he has made it clear that he does not know that he is a Russian spy.
Zdanoka, whose family is of Russian origin, is running as a non-attached MEP in the European Chamber after being removed from the Greens/European Free Alliance group over her questionable defense of Russian policy. For the group’s vice president, Alice Bah Kuhnke, the information that has now come to light is “terrible” but “not a surprise,” as she told The Insider, a media outlet founded by a Russian opponent.
The MEP publicly supported Catalan pro-independence politicians and met with several of them in Brussels, including ERC leader Oril Junqueras, after he was pardoned. He also questioned the detention of the current General Coordinator of EH Bildu, Arnaldo Otegi.
In addition, in February 2022, he led the MPs’ mission to investigate the situation in the Mar Menor in Murcia and meet with authorities and organizations in the area.