Latvia investigates MEP Ždanoka's links to FSB

Latvia's State Security Service (SBU) has launched a criminal investigation into possible cooperation between MEP Tatjana Ždanok and Russian special services.

Source. This was reported on Saturday, 16 March, by the news portal Delfi.lv.

The publication points out that the criminal case against Zdanok was opened on 22 February. Delfi notes that the State Security Service does not provide more detailed comments in favour of the investigation.

At the end of January, The Insider published an investigation claiming that Latvian MEP Ždanok had been in active correspondence with Russian citizens, allegedly employees of the Federal Security Service, and, among other things, sent them reports on her activities.

The investigation, conducted with the participation of Estonian, Latvian and Swedish journalists, was based on the hacked email account of Ždanoka, who did not deny the authenticity of the emails.

Following the publication of this information, the European Parliament began investigating allegations of links with Russian special services against the MEP from Latvia.

Ždanok was expelled from her political group and no longer belongs to any faction of the European Parliament.

Ždanok has been a member of the European Parliament since 2004. She is a co-founder of the Russian Union of Latvia party, which was established in 1998 and promotes a pro-Russian agenda. In the last parliamentary elections, the party failed to pass the five per cent threshold.

If Zdanok's links with Russian special services are proven, the MP could be prosecuted for assisting a foreign state or foreign organisation in activities against Latvia. This law has been in force in Latvia since 2016 and is not retroactive. Most of the correspondence that gave rise to talk about Ždanok's cooperation with the Russian special services dates back to 2016, but there is a reported letter sent in 2017.