“The accusations about my contacts with several people, which falls into direct duties of a politician, won’t work. My name was never mentioned in the “KGB Bag” (unlike many other well-known politicians), I have not cooperated in the past and do not cooperate now with any other special services. Suspicions regarding cooperation of that form should be better addressed to those harass politicians and hack their personal e-mail address,” as mentioned in Latvian MEP Tatyana Zhdanok’s statement.
“On Monday, the 26th of January, I received a list of questions from Re:Balica journalist Inga Spriņģe on my e-mail. These questions were posed because an article was in the works about my “political activities”. The journalist, without any hesitation, said “we have documents and e-mail in our possession that indicate that you’ve had contacts with multiple Russian FSB officers since 2005 at least”,” Zhdanok comments the situation.
“I want to point out to society that hacking a private e-mail without permission from law enforcement authorities is not allowed. This qualifies as theft of personal data, which is a crime,” Zhdanok added in her released statement.
“Judging by the questions asked, the spying efforts first launched twenty years ago provided insignificant results. Why else did Inga Spriņģe’s letter asked me to provide answers as quickly as possible, but Sunday morning, because “it’s not possible to wait for answers for longer than that, since the article is to be published at the beginning of next week”?
I believe the haste can be explained by the fact that on Thursday I had sent invitations to members of the European Parliament to come to an event we will be holding next Wednesday, one of the European Holocaust Remembrance days. We will present a movie about the Riga Ghetto. After the showing we plan to hold a discussion about the resurrection of neo-fascism in EU member states, Latvia included. I won’t be intimidated. I and my associates will continue using the European Parliament’s tribute to fight neo-fascism,” stresses Zhdanok.
Re:Baltica previously reported that a leaked e-mail correspondence indicates that at least since 2004 Zhdanok has been reporting to Russia Federal Security Service (FSB) about her activities and requesting financing. She denies having ties to the FSB and calls her contacts childhood friends.
The e-mail correspondence ended up in the possession of Russian investigative journalism centre The Insider, who then shared this information with Re:Baltica,
Estonian Delfi portal and Swedish Expressen newspaper. In her response to Re:Baltica, Zhdanok did not deny the authenticity of those e-mails. She still said it is unacceptable to comment on the content of personal documents acquired from hackers.
According to leaked documents, at first e-mail correspondence went on between Zhdanok and Russian citizen Dmitry Gladei, who worked at Russian FSB. Zhdanok did not tell Re:Baltica if she knew he was from FSB. His “visible” task in the last decade was representing Russia in election monitoring organisations that legitimised problematic elections in countries within Russia’s range of interests in which international organisations found problems. For example, in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. There, Zhdanok together with multiple other pro-Kremlin MEPs “acted as observers from the west”. Latvian State Security Service (VDD) noted at the time that Zhdanok served as “an effective resource for Russian television shows and various public events in Brussels in Latvia, where participants voiced strong support for Russia’s position in the Ukrainian conflict”.
According to Re:Baltica, Zhdanok planned to meet with Gladei in Europe. Although in their e-mail correspondence they never discussed the reason for the meeting, the type of relationship the two shared can be glimpsed from one e-mail from 2007 titled “Report”. In it, Zhdanok explained she could not send over the information she had promised to send from Strasbourg. At the time of writing, she was in Crimea, where “thankfully there is e-mail”, and that the computer she was using at the time of writing would need to be vacated soon. This is why she wrote “shortly about the work done since June”.
Zhdanok wrote that on the 26th of June, a public hearing was held in the EP, where the participants of the meeting criticized the Estonian authorities’ allegedly aggressive “actions against the participants of the [Bronze Soldier’s relocation] protest”. This event was intentionally organised on the International Day of Support for Victims of Torture. Zhdanok said it was “covered by Russian, Estonian and Latvian media. (A large article was written by my intern Ivans Engaševs, and was published by two large Russian newspapers in Latvia and weekly “Rakurs”.)”
Re:Baltica found out that the “large article” was published without the author’s name by Daugavpils newspapers Gorod and Chas. Rakurs was an internal newspaper of the Latvian Russians Union.
On the 11th of August a three-day camp was organised. Representatives of Latvian anti-fascists and Estonian Night Watch met there. Representatives of the latter organisation were accused of causing the mass riots of April 2007, when they protested against the relocation of the Soviet monument to the city’s cemetery. “During the meeting the decision was made to compose an international association of anti-fascists.”
Zhdanok reported about Latvia that she founded “Tatyana Zhdanok’s foundation “Russian school”, which will pay for the weekly programme Hour for Russian school”. “The point of this programme will be informing parents about the problems that could appear if they send their children to study at Latvian schools and kindergartens”. Re:Baltica found the programme was broadcast by Radio PIK, which is owned by pro-Russian ex-politician Juris Žuravļovs.
Zhdanok’s report also mentioned preparation for the exhibition Russians in Latvia, which is planned to be set up in the European Parliament. According to her, the objective was “break the rooted myth propagated by Latvian officials about Russian residents in Latvia as though they are immigrants”.
In spring 2010 Zhdanok sent Gladei ideas for festivities dedicated to the end of WWII in Latvia, which is celebrated by the Russian community on the 9th of May. This time she requested funding – USD 6 000 – to procure 10 000 m of St George Ribbons to distribute among participants in Latvian cities. USD 1 500 was requested to produce 1 000 copies of war song compilations to give out to veterans. She also requested money to organise a trip to Austria and Belgium for Latvian war veterans and the organisation of “Youth – Great Victories for the Anniversary” event.
Zhdanok did not say in her response to Re:Baltica if she received the money in the end.
She has known Gladei since the 70s, when they were learning to ski as students in Caucasus. They continued meeting in St. Petersburg, where Gladei was living with his wife. They met in Riga as well, when Gladei’s daughter got married to a Latvian. Gladei worked in the CIS Parliamentary Assembly’s Secretariat and Zhdanok participated in various events in St. Petersburg as an MEP. Between 2014 and 2019 Zhdanok had invited CIS Parliamentary Assembly members to various conferences she’d organised in Brussels.
The Insider found out about Gladei’s ties to FSB based on his permit to access official secrets and permission to go on limited/controlled trips outside of Russia. This information was allegedly found in a hacked Russian government’s database. This database was supposedly hacked by the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Service.
Gladei worked in FSB Fifth Division, which was composed in the 90s. Since 2004 this division was charged with opposing “colourful revolutions” in countries within Russia’s range of interests, which includes Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. In recent past, this division was tasked with “politically destabilising Ukraine and recruiting aids for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022”.
Zhdanok has been in regular contact with Gladei for at least eight years, up until 2013, according to documents available to The Insider. The situation changed in September 2013, when Gladei forwarded the MEP to a new e-mail address. A couple of months later, Gladei introduced Zhdanok to a “Sergei Krasin”, with whom she’d met shortly after.
According to The Insider, “Krasin” was a pseudonym.
Investigative journalists concluded it may be FSB officer from St. Petersburg Sergei Beltyukov. According to The Insider, Beltkyukov graduated from St. Petersburg State University of Economics in 1993. Since then his name is listed among FSB wage recipients. Beltyukov also holds 2nd level permit to official secrets, which, according to FSB regulations, limits non-sanctioned travel outside the country.
The leaked e-mails show that Zhdanok remained in contact with Beltyukov at least until January 2017. In some letter she asked him to assist with sending a delegation of eight veterans from Latvia to St. Petersburg for festivities tied to the anniversary of the end of the blockade of Leningrad. “Traditionally the travel costs will be covered by me, and the administration will cover accommodation and catering costs,” she wrote.
According to Re:Baltica, Gladei and Beltyukov are not the only FSB operatives Zhdakon has assisted over the years. In spring 2014 – when Russia had already captured Crimea – Zhdanok asked the Belgian embassy in Russia to issue a Schengen visa to some Artyom Kureyev to allow him to visit the European Parliament. This information can be seen in a ruling of an Estonian verdict that declared the self-proclaimed “Estonian Ombudsman” Sergei Seredenko for actions that threatened the existence of Estonia. The court identified Kureyev as a member of the Russian Security Service and one of Seredenko’s curator.
Zhdanok explained to Re:Baltica that she invited Kureyev to participate in her Russian youth forum organised in the European Parliament. “My intern who studied in the International Relations Faculty of the St Petersburg State University of Economics recommended him,” Zhdanok said.
Zhdanok was in contact with another FSB operative – Georgiy Muradov. In 2009 TV3 programme Nekā personīga reported that, then a representative of the Moscow City Council, Muradov arrived in Riga and invited local Russians to vote for Zhdanok in EP elections. Journalists recorded footage that showed how at one of the events war veterans were handed money.
Now Muradov is deputy head of Russian “soft power” organisation of Rossotrudnichestvo in annexed Crimea. He is under US sanctions for anti-Ukrainian activities. The Insider reports that Muradov’s official registered address – Mishurinsk Prospect 29/1 in Moscow – is known as an apartment building for FSB officers.
Despite how Zhdanok requested money from FSB and how organisations associated with her received money from Moscow, a representative of the Latvian State Security Service, who wished to remain anonymous, told Re:Baltica that Zhdanok likely cooperated with FSB for ideological, not financial reasons. “She didn’t need money. She had enough as an MEP and she spent a lot of money from her own pocket.”
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