Europe’s Bombshell Spy Scandal Sparks Hunt for More Traitors

Explosive accusations that Latvian member of European Parliament, Tatjana Ždanoka, has been working as a Russian spy for some 13 years are roiling lawmakers across the continent.

Since at least 2003, Ždanoka worked to arrange in-person meetings with her Russian intelligence contacts, from Moscow to Brussels, according to The Insider, Delfi Estonia, Re:Baltica investigative journalism center, and Sweden’s Expressen newspaper, which cite emails and other correspondence throughout their investigation. She has also requested funding from the intelligence officers and shared draft initiatives and press releases with them on several occasions, according to the investigation.

The European Parliament has since opened an investigation into the matter—and now, lawmakers in Latvia are warning there are other Russian spies in their ranks just like her, and they’re reinvigorating the effort to expose them.

“We are convinced that Ždanoka is not an isolated case,” Sandra Kalniete, Roberts Zīle and Ivars Ijabs wrote in a letter, according to Politico. “There are other MEPs … knowingly serving Russia’s interests.” There are “public interventions, voting record[s], organized events, as well as covert activities,” the three lawmakers wrote.

The head of the legal affairs committee and a Spanish parliamentarian, Adrian Vazquez Lazara, has called for a review process to determine what policies allowed Ždanoka to fall so far from grace.

“It would be intolerable if there were deputies paid by the Kremlin working to destroy European democracy from within,” Lazara said on social media. “Any links with Russia and its satellites must be uncovered and pursued.”

Russia has long sought after well-placed assets in European countries, and Ždanoka is by no means alone. Estonian officials just arrested a professor accused of spying for Russia. Last year, a former intelligence agent was sentenced to prison for passing sensitive information to Russia. In 2022, German authorities arrested a man in Germany’s foreign intelligence agency for sharing secrets with Moscow. A Hungarian member of the European Parliament was charged with spying on the EU for Russia in 2017. Other recent examples abound, from Austria to Poland.

For Russia, the alleged recruitment of Ždanoka is par for the course, Bill Evanina, the former top U.S. counterintelligence official who served as the head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, told The Daily Beast.

“Russia spends a lot of time, effort, and resources recruiting members of not only NATO countries, but neighboring countries, intelligence services, and body politic. Especially at the lower level because they assume they’re going to rise up in rank.”

Years in the Making

Counterintelligence leaders frequently work to track who is vulnerable to possible recruitment from enemy intelligence agencies, including in NATO countries. Evanina previously chaired the National Counterintelligence Policy Board, and the Allied Security and Counterintelligence Forum, where he worked with counterintelligence leaders from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.K. on these very issue.s Evanina also chaired the NATO Counterintelligence Panel.

Just since Russia’s war in Ukraine began in 2022, European nations collectively expelled approximately 400 Russian spies, according to MI6.

“When I was in my old role, part of my job was being the lead for counterintelligence for NATO. We would always discuss Russian recruitment, not only in Brussels and Belgium and in and around NATO, but in the host countries. What does it look like, who do they look for, who’s vulnerable?”

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