Member of the European Parliament Tetiana Zdanoka is under criminal proceedings for possible cooperation with Russian special services after The Insider wrote that she has been engaged in espionage for Moscow for more than ten years, the Leta news agency reports. Saturday, quoted by DPA, respectively Agerpres.

Tatiana ZdanokaPhoto: Edu Botella / Zuma Press / Profimedia

Criminal proceedings were opened on February 22. Riga authorities did not provide any other details about the ongoing investigation.

Tatyana Zdanoka has been a member of the European Parliament since 2004 and does not belong to any political group.

The European Parliament is conducting a separate investigation into allegations against a Latvian MEP.

According to Russian investigative website The Insider (based in Latvia), Zdanoka, a non-party member of the European Parliament since 2004, would have cooperated with the FSB, Russia’s Federal Security Service, since the same year.

The politician would “openly defend” Moscow’s position, The Insider wrote in a lengthy article based on email exchanges between Zdanoka and Russian agents, including “clear and detailed accounts of her activities as an MEP.”

The emails refer to “physical meetings in Moscow or Brussels” and “requests for funding from Russian sources for his political activities,” according to this investigation, conducted jointly with media organizations including the Estonian website and Swedish newspaper Expressen.