Latvia’s efforts to rein in Russian spying and influence came to spotlight following allegations that a well-known pro-Russian MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka, collaborated with the FSB.
Russian independent media: Latvian MEP worked for Russian intelligence
On 29 January, the Russian internet media in exile The Insider started their new series of articles about the European politicians recruited by Russia. The first article was dedicated to Latvian politician Tatjana Ždanoka – a very experienced politician in Latvia and currently serving as an MEP.
According to The Insider, Ždanoka cooperated with FSB at least since 2004. The journalists wrote that it is not clear when exactly Ždanoka started to collaborate with Russian intelligence – if, for instance, the MEP’s connection to intelligence dates back to Soviet times. However, in October 2005 Ždanoka had a correspondence with an employee of the FSB office in St. Petersburg Dmitry Gladey. She sent him messages about the projects to organize conferences in Estonia’s capital Tallinn, and the border town Narva, right across from Russia. The conferences were aimed to discuss the „experience of participation of Russian politicians in local governance and cooperation between non-governmental organizations and local authorities”.
According to the correspondence, Ždanoka and Gladey met regularly in Moscow and Europe. Ždanoka did not deny that she knows Gladey and told The Insider that the meetings were personal. However, as The Insider noted, the contents of the messages were not of a personal nature. Moreover, when Gladey left FSB in 2013, a new officer - Sergey Beltyukov – was assigned to Ždanoka, who continued to write reports.
A staunch pro-Russian politician that endorsed Crimea’s annexation
When the scandal about Ždanoka came to light, some commentators and journalists rhetorically asked: Is it a surprise? The former head of one of Latvia’s intelligence services – The Constitution Protection Bureau – Janis Kazocins told Latvian Radio that „the fact that Ždanoka communicated with a friend of hers since childhood is just as big a surprise as the fact that in the House of Moscow [social, cultural center, financed by Russia, previously existed in the center of Riga and also mentioned many times as a center of pro-Russian and anti-Latvian affairs] in Riga Russian interests were represented … We all knew it”.
Ždanoka is a well-known and long-known politician whose position regarding the state of Latvia was the subject of the discussions for decades. The 73 years old, Riga-born politician was a member of the Communist Party from 1971 to 1991. She stayed in the party even after the Soviet Union tried to crack down on Latvia’s independence during the so-called “Barricades” starting on January the 13th, 1991. The January 1991 events were followed, months later, by the outlawing of the Communist Party and a ban, for those that were members after the 13th, to hold a seat in Latvia’s parliament.
For the past three decades Ždanoka, who holds a PhD in mathematics, was the leader of several so-called Latvian Russian parties, has been in deputy of the Riga municipality (1989-1994 and 1997-1999) and European Parliament (2004-2018 and 2019-ongoing).
Over the years, Ždanoka has come to the public's attention many times with her pro-Moscow statements and actions. For instance, in 2014 Ždanoka was in Russia’s newly annexed Crimea and openly supported the so-called referendum of annexation of the Ukrainian region to Russia. Moreover, she participated in an event where people openly expressed their wish to renew the Soviet Union. Later she commented that it will not be a restoration of the USSR in its old version, but, in programming language, the USSR version 2.0.
In 2015, the Latvian Russian Union, led by Ždanoka, received 90 000 EUR from the Russian government. She constantly insisted that Russian language should have a bigger role in the Latvian society, she organized protests, and in 2018 she briefly left the European Parliament to “fight for the Russian rights in Latvia”, claiming that “Russians will be left with three options: assimilation, marginalization or emigration from Latvia.
In February 2018, she organized in Brussels an event called “The political persecution in the Baltic States” claiming that “Russians and those who speak in Russian (in Latvia) are in the same situation as Jews before The Second World War”. The Latvian State Security Service (SSS), which focuses on counterintelligence and internal security, examined this case but refused to give any comments.
Ždanoka also challenged the ban on participating in the Latvian parliamentary elections, but the court rejected this claim. On the contrary - it is known that Ždanoka has been working in Brussels and Strasbourg for the last few months because the Saeima - the Parliament of Latvia – has decided there will be an identical ban on EP elections starting this year. Those who were in organizations directed against Latvia after January 13, 1991, will not be allowed to run for the EP. It makes Ždanoka’s political future doubtful.
As Ždanoka rejects the accusations, the Latvian intelligence stresses there are gaps in the Criminal law
Ždanoka rejects accusations by saying that at least one letter in which she asked for money to buy Saint Georg's ribbons (a symbol used by Putin’s Russia and associated with Moscow’s aggressiveness) for the May 9 Victory Day celebrations has been forged. She also claimed that she is not an agent of Russian intelligence but “an agent for peace, an agent for Europe without fascism, an agent for minority rights, an agent for a united Europe from Lisbon to the Urals”.
However, Ždanoka's colleagues in the EP and possibly the Latvian intelligence as well have different opinions. SSS already invited Ždanoka and one of her closest associates, Miroslavs Mitrofanovs, for the discussion. The SSS, which usually rarely gives comments, said it would evaluate the news about Ždanoka and her possible cooperation with Russia. However, SSS immediately emphasized that until 2016, helping a foreign country or a foreign organization was not a criminal liability under Latvian law. Thus, because “The Insider” wrote about the period from the year 2005 until the year 2013, the actions done by Ždanoka will probably not qualify as a crime.
While the SSS is reserved about Latvia’s chances to successfully bring charges against Ždanoka, politicians openly acknowledge that she’s been acting against the country’s interests for a long time.
The deputy of Saeima or Latvian Parliament, also the Chairman of Defence, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee Saeima Ainars Latkovskis acknowledged that “speaking honestly – our intelligence has been aware for a long time about Ždanoka’s possible links with Russian official institutions”. Another deputy of Saeima and former minister of interior affairs Maris Kučinskis, said that “I can confirm that the file about Ždanoka is very large - all cases have been recorded. This will not remain without consequences. This is how I feel it, knowing the violations that have occurred”.
Officials reassure the public that Latvia’s intelligence community is doing its job
As Ždanoka's alleged involvement with the Russian intelligence came to light, Latvians wonder how many other spies are there in the country and why, if everyone knew that Ždanoka has been acting against the interests of Latvia for a long time, it took so long to consider taking legal action against her.
Kučinskis thinks the public should trust the SSS. He recalls the case of the ex-deputy of Saeima Janis Adamsons who was found guilty of espionage for Russia, fraud, and illegal possession of a weapon, and sentenced to eight years in prison. The SSS worked quietly on that case, but then it got the results. Thus, it is hard to evaluate the work of SSS.
Former Constitution Protection Bureau head Janis Kazocins points out that, according to American journalist Paul Gouble, Latvia is the most important Baltic country for the Kremlin, as it is the one where it stands the best chance to exert some influence. “We have to look at two threats. One is spies who try to learn secret information that is necessary for a potential enemy to do great damage to our country. The second - much, much, wider - is the information war, in which influential persons try to influence, for example, through social networks or talking nonsense about our country in the EP, in different conferences and media”. Kazocins stressed that Ždanoka is not alone. “For example, the influencers in Daugavpils [the second biggest city in Latvia, located in the eastern part of the country, mainly populated by Russian-speaking people] speak very openly.”
Kazocins feels that the laws targeting people or organizations who act against Latvia should not be harsher, and that a balanced policy should be maintained, so that ethnic Russians would integrate better in the society: “If our Russians become more Latvian with each generation, but, at the same time, they continue to be proud of their Russian origin, then this is the result of a balanced policy”.
