EU Parliament probes a Latvian lawmaker after media allegations that she spied for Russia

The European Parliament has opened an investigation into news reports that a Latvian member of the assembly, Tatjana Ždanoka, has been working as a Russian agent for several years, officials said Tuesday

BRUSSELS -- The European Parliament has opened an investigation into news reports that a Latvian member of the assembly, Tatjana Ždanoka, has been working as a Russian agent for several years, officials said Tuesday.

The president of the European Union’s legislative body, Roberta Metsola, “takes these allegations very seriously,” her office said in a statement. Metsola is tasking a parliamentary committee that handles EU lawmakers’ code of conduct with handling the case.

Nordic and Baltic news sites reported on Monday that Ždanoka has been an agent for the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, since at least 2004.

Following a joint investigation, the independent Russian investigative journalism site The Insider, its Latvian equivalent Re:Baltica, news portal Delfi Estonia, and Swedish newspaper Expressen published a number of emails they said were leaked showing her interactions with her handler.

Expressen claimed that Ždanoka “spread propaganda about alleged violations of the rights of Russians in the Baltics and argued for a pro-Kremlin policy. In the EU Parliament, she has refused to condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine.”