The European Parliament announced on Tuesday that it has opened an investigation into a Latvian Member of the European Parliament, accused following an investigation by an investigative website of conducting espionage activities in benefit of Moscow over the past two decades, according to AFP, cited by Agerpres.
According to the Russian investigative website The Insider (based in Latvia), Tatjana Zdanoka, an independent MEP since 2004, has been collaborating with Russian security services (FSB) since the following year.
The politician allegedly “openly defended” Moscow’s positions, writes The Insider in a lengthy article based on email exchanges between Zdanoka and Russian agents, including “explicit and detailed reports on her activities as a member of the European Parliament.”
These emails refer to “physical meetings in Moscow or Brussels” and “requests for funding from Russian sources for her political activities,” according to the investigation carried out in collaboration with other media outlets, including an Estonian website and the Swedish newspaper Expressen.
The President of the European Parliament, Maltese Roberta Metsola, “takes these accusations very seriously and has sent the case to the Advisory Committee on the Code of Conduct, which means that investigations have been opened” within the institution, according to her spokesperson.
The issue will also be on the agenda of a meeting of the political group leaders on Wednesday. “We note that these accusations have been reported in the (Tatjana Zdanoka’s) country for some time,” while “all MEPs are subject to the same rules regarding the independence of their mandate or ethics,” added the Parliament’s press service, without wanting to comment in detail.
In addition to the internal investigation opened by the institution, reference is made to possible procedures that the Latvian authorities could take in this case.
These espionage suspicions come at a time when the European Parliament was rocked by the end of 2022 by Qatargate, an alleged corruption scandal involving several MEPs, suspected of acting in favor of Qatar and Morocco in exchange for money.
For more details, see HERE.