Eurasia Press & News
The Insider has already written that Latvian Member of the European Parliament Tatyana Zhdanok turned out to be an FSB agent. Due to the great interest in this topic, we are publishing some details of her adventures. As it turns out, for many years Zhdanok not only helped spread disinformation, using the podium of the European Parliament, but also “leaked” to the FSB all the information that she could obtain using her status as a European deputy. Her reports to the Fifth Service of the FSB played a role in the violent dispersal of Euromaidan in 2014 and, for example, in the Kremlin’s pressure on Moldova during negotiations with the EU. The documents also show the direct participation of the FSB in organizing financing for Zhdanok. Now she faces a criminal case in Latvia, but she has already prepared for herself an “alternate airfield” in Valdai.
“Yanukovych is ready for a forceful scenario”
On January 28, 2014, at the height of Euromaidan, the European Parliament sent a delegation to Kyiv, whose members met with both Yanukovych and the Ukrainian opposition forces. Tatiana Zhdanok, MEP from Latvia, was one of the delegates sent to Kyiv. But, unlike her colleagues, following the trip, she sent a report not to the European Parliament at all – but to her curator from the Fifth Service of the FSB, Sergei Beltyukov. In her report, she summarizes: Maidan will not dissolve on its own, and Yanukovych does not have the will to forcefully disperse it.
“Sergey, sorry for the delay in answering, but I have a lot of time pressure because of this trip to Kyiv that was squeezed in before the Strasbourg session. The impressions are contradictory. Yanukovych is too cunning to be figured out during an hour and a half conversation. But the feeling is that he is ready for a power scenario. Indirect evidence is the fact that deputy Kolesnichenko urgently took his family from Kyiv to Sevastopol (with his son transferred to a Sevastopol school). Although Vadim assures that he took this step because of the threats he received. On the other hand, some observers are inclined to believe that Yanukovych will very soon sign an agreement with the EU, having received maximum bonuses from all sides. At the meeting with us on Monday, he looked quite cheerful, calm and confident. I figured he should have been more confused. He was clearly comfortable with our society (7 people headed by Spiegel), and after his own introduction and our short speeches, he launched into a 45-minute story about all the vicissitudes in connection with the signing of an agreement with the EU and the IMF. Well, on the Maidan, where we walked late on Sunday evening, the sensations are mixed: some kind of mixture of farce, drama, horror and comedy (with a preponderance of the third component on this list). This will not all go away so easily. T.J.”
On the same day, Beltyukov succinctly replied: “Thank you!!!”
On February 20, two weeks later, the FSB sent its own delegation to Kiev, led by the head of the Fifth Service of the FSB, Sergei Beseda. On the same day, police snipers began shooting to kill at protesters, killing dozens of people. However, the use of force did not help, and Yanukovych had to flee to Russia.
And on May 2, 2014, clashes took place in Odessa between “anti-Maidan activists” organized by the Kremlin and pro-Ukrainian activists. “Anti-Maidanovites” attacked the activists and shot one of them, after which the enraged activists put the provocateurs to flight, and they took refuge in the Odessa House of Trade Unions. The parties began throwing Molotov cocktails at each other, and a fire broke out. Activists helped people escape the burning building, but more than 40 people died. Kremlin propaganda chose this incident to declare “Russian genocide” and began to use all resources to spread their version of events. Zhdanok was also involved.
In June, Beltyukov asks her to organize a photo exhibition dedicated to the events at the House of Trade Unions. Zhdanok zealously gets down to business and holds a whole series of events dedicated to these events, including within the walls of the European Parliament.
There were also personal meetings – for example, in Moscow at the Shokoladnitsa on Lubyanka. Arriving in Moscow, Zhdanok not only met with a curator from the FSB, but also appeared on propaganda talk shows, such as Solovyov’s show. Beltyukov wrote that he enjoyed watching her performances on television and thanked her with words about how important it is today.
Money from Moscow
Zhdanok’s efforts were highly appreciated. At the end of 2014, Sergei Beltyukov (in his letters he signs as Sergei Krasin) writes to her: “Tatyana Arkadyevna! Perhaps D.G. will contact you in the near future. An opportunity has arisen to apply for a research grant through St. Petersburg State University. At first glance, the idea looks interesting.”
Zhdanok replies: “Sergey, thank you for the kind words, which are always nice to receive. D.G. called me, I hope to meet our mutual friend in Riga. T.J.”
“D. G.” – this is an employee of the St. Petersburg FSB Directorate Dmitry Gladey, with whom Zhdanok has been communicating since the times of the USSR. She stated that this was just an old acquaintance of hers from her student days, but in correspondence she communicates with him on a first-name basis and in a businesslike tone, and the “old acquaintance” discusses with her only work issues and, among other things, arranges financing for her.
By that time, Zhdanok had been receiving Russian money for many years: in her correspondence one can find, for example, a discussion of a grant for holding a forum in Brussels in 2008, where Zhdanok spoke from Russian positions on the topic of the Russian-Georgian war. She negotiated the grant with the propagandist and director of European programs of the Russian World, Alexei Gromyko, the grandson of the famous Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, nicknamed “Mr. No.” Gromyko Jr. made a quick career; in 2014, his “correct” position on the Ukrainian issue helped him first get the position of head of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and then get into the scientific council of the Russian Security Council. (True, after the full-scale invasion, Gromyko, together with a number of Russian scientists, signed a letter expressing “concern” and calling for a “cease fire”, after which Gromyko was removed from the Security Council.)
Also, judging by the correspondence, Zhdanok regularly received funding from the Russian Fund for Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad. This is how she teaches her friend, a politician from the pro-Kremlin party ZaPCHEL Vladimir Buzaev, who submitted an application to this fund:
“Vladimir, the form of the letter is completely unacceptable. If I had written applications like this (and no one else wrote them except me and Leni Reichman), then I would never have received any funding. You need to make a short letter without any ultimatums and with a realistic budget (no more than 20 thousand euros). T.J.”
Assistant from the Kremlin
Moscow helped Zhdanok not only with money, but also with people. The same group of people who oversaw the disinformation campaign about the events in Odessa on May 2 and communicated with Zhdanok through the group email group2may@gmail.com are discussing the appointment of a new assistant with her. Someone named Dmitry (most likely the same FSB agent Dmitry Gladei) confronts Zhdanok with the fact that she will now have a new assistant – Yulia Satirova, a student from Odessa. Zhdanok obediently arranges for Satirova to join his staff. She worked in the European Parliament until 2019, not only for Zdanok, but also for two other politicians: Miroslav Mitrofanov, a Latvian parliamentarian and member of the Latvian Russian Union, and Jiri Maštalki, a communist MEP from the Czech Republic.
Satirova is not the only one for whom Zhdanok found a job in the European Parliament. She also managed to get her former ally Yuri Sokolovsky into the Greens/European Free Alliance parliamentary group. He still works there as an advisor.
Agent provocateur
Not only in Ukraine, Zhdanok became a useful informant for the Kremlin. She is, of course, especially active in reporting to the FSB on the state of affairs in Latvia, where she herself is active in political activities, which she coordinated with Moscow. For example, during organized provocations during the “procession of legionnaires”, when a group of elderly SS veterans laid flowers at the monument, Zhdanok was supposed to present this phenomenon as proof of the popularity of Nazism in Latvia. People dressed in prison uniforms and with the stars of David on their chests stood in the way of the procession, the police began to push them back to avoid a collision, and the bright picture was subsequently intended to demonstrate the oppression of “anti-fascists” by the Latvian state.
The FSB not only knew about the provocation in advance, but also warned Zhdanok that a report would be needed: “I’m waiting for the promised clarifications for the article on March 16 – the text of your statement, the reaction of deputies, the consequences.” After the event, Zhdanok sends photographs accompanied by the following text:
“I am sending a text and photo to him. The initial short text explaining the photo was sent on March 16 to the deputies of my Green faction (53 people). The more detailed text sent was sent on March 17 to the same “greens” and also to members of the intergroup on minority issues (42 dep.).
The reaction of the deputies will be fully monitored next week, since this will be the week of faction meetings, and now the week of commissions. Today, at a meeting of a group of deputies from the Green faction working on the Civil Liberties Commission (5 deputies), the head of the group, Kathalijne Buitenweig, asked me to talk about how events developed further.”
Zhdanok also forwarded to Gladay a statement that she sent to her colleagues in the European Parliament. In it, the MEP expresses his outrage at “the violence used by the police against anti-fascist demonstrators.”
It is curious that twenty years later the Kremlin still continues provocations and disinformation in Europe with the Stars of David – although now not in Latvia, but in France. Hired provocateurs paint Stars of David and anti-Semitic graffiti in Paris, after which photographs of these actions are distributed online through the Kremlin troll network as evidence of the rise of anti-Semitism in France.
Eye of the Sovereign
In addition to Latvia and Ukraine, Zhdanok is actively interested in Eastern European countries cooperating with the EU within the framework of the Eastern Partnership, and as an MEP, as part of delegations, he visits these countries or meets with their representatives in Brussels. She disciplinedly reports to the FSB about these meetings and their results.
For example, in the summer of 2010, Zhdanok sent Gladay a program for the visit of deputies from potential Eastern Partnership countries to Brussels. She later reported which participating countries were (and were not) in favor of including Russia’s ally Belarus in the project:
“I looked at my notes. The positions of the participants are as follows: Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are firmly in favor of the full participation of Belarus, and Ukraine and Moldova are ready to agree with the “compromise” proposals of the European Parliament 5+5 or 10+10. But they all seem not to mind starting work without Belarus, and the first meeting of the full delegations (60 people from the EP and 10 people from each parliament) should take place in September. T.J.”
A few months later, she sent a similar report to Gladea from Moldova. And in 2012, Zhdanok traveled to Azerbaijan. Before such visits, MEPs receive thick folders containing analysis of the host country’s economy and politics, resumes of senior officials, information about support from international funds and briefings on key issues such as the suppression of protest movements. Zhdanok forwarded the almost 70-page report to Gladay. These documents were not confidential, but they were intended only for European Parliament delegations, and not for the general public – and certainly not for Russian intelligence.
In Vilnius in November 2013, the EU planned to sign cooperation agreements with several Eastern Partnership countries, and Russia was increasing the pressure. The import of wine from Moldova and chocolate from Ukraine was banned. Moscow also threatened to cut off gas supplies, a very serious measure given the approaching winter. Members of the European Parliament meeting in Lithuania decided to adopt a resolution condemning Russia’s pressure tactics. Zhdanok also sent this resolution to her FSB supervisor.
She prepared both her draft resolution from the Green Party and the text of her speech. In it, she acknowledged that Russia is exerting pressure, but pointed out that the EU allegedly has double standards: Moldova will no longer be able to export wine to Russia, but the EU does not offer an alternative market. She cited Latvia as an example, saying that it joined the EU, but “the marriage was unequal.” In essence, Zhdanok has reinterpreted for Moldova the message that the Kremlin has been spreading in the Baltic states for years: the EU is treating you unfairly, and if you stay with Russia, your country will be better off.
“I’m shocked,” said former German MEP Rebecca Harms, who then headed the Zhdanok group in the European Parliament, after learning about these emails. “It becomes clear that not only did she have a ‘different opinion’ on issues related to Russia, but she was indeed an informant. I very much regret that I was not strong enough to organize a majority to expel her from the Green group.”
The Kremlin’s little assistant
Zhdanok not only reported events to the FSB, she also gave advice to Russian intelligence on how to more effectively interfere in European political affairs.
In an email dated October 1, 2009, Zhdanok sent Gladay “an analysis of errors in the work of some structures that affect the image of Russia abroad.” She pointed out that Russian diplomats abroad were ill-prepared to work with the media and were easily “outdone” by colleagues from the Baltic states and Georgia, who were “young, dynamic, trained in the West and fluent in foreign languages.”
Zhdanok noted that this dynamic was clearly visible during Estonia’s “Bronze Soldier” episode in 2007, when Tallinn moved a Soviet World War II monument from a busy city intersection to a military cemetery. The transfer was met with riots provoked by the Russian authorities and a cyber attack by hackers from the GRU. Another example cited by Zhdanok relates to the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, in which Moscow’s diplomatic efforts were not enough to convince the world that Russia was not the aggressor.
In her analysis, Zhdanok also criticized Russian officials who treat foreign trips as tourist adventures, noting that Moscow envoys too often compensate for the lack of convincing arguments with an “arrogant attitude,” which she summed up as follows: “Russia has gas and oil, so you should respect us.”
Zhdanok had quite serious ambitions: she tried to lobby for the creation, on the basis of her European Russian Forum (ERF), of an entire government department that would use the Russian diaspora to promote state interests abroad. For many years the ERF was the most important event of Zdanok in Brussels. She booked the forum’s venue in the European Parliament building almost six months in advance and took on the role of chief organizer, with important Russian officials sitting next to her. Among the founders of the forum were representatives of the Moscow mayor’s office and the Russian Orthodox Church, and among the sponsors were the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russkiy Mir Foundation. The forum, a series of discussions and exhibitions gave Zhdanok a reason to bring Russian politicians and representatives of the intelligence services to the European Parliament.
Now, after the investigation has begun, Zhdanok’s European career faces an inglorious end. She will no longer be able to run for the European Parliament and, without parliamentary immunity, has every reason to find herself involved in a criminal case. Apparently expecting such an outcome, Zhdanok recently renovated her house in Valdai.
