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

By LORNE COOK and JARI TANNER
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — 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. In a statement, the office of the president of the parliament, Roberta Metsola, said she “takes these allegations very seriously.” 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, the FSB, since at least 2004.