Tatjana Ždanoka

Tatjana Ždanoka
Member of the European Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office July 2019
Constituency	Latvia
Member of the European Parliament
In office July 2004 – March 2018
Succeeded by	Miroslav Mitrofanov
Constituency	Latvia
Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia
Member of Parliament for Riga 40th district
In office May 1990 – June 1993
Personal details
Born	(1950-05-08) 8 May 1950 (age 71) Riga, Soviet Union
Citizenship	USSR (until 1991) stateless (1991—1996) Latvia (since 1996)
Political party	Latvian Russian Union/LRU (since 2014) For Human Rights in a United Latvia/ForHRUL (2007–2014) Equal Rights (1993–2007) Communist Party of Latvia (1971—1991)
Other political affiliations	European Free Alliance
Spouse(s)	Aleksandrs Ždanoks
Father	Arkady Hesin
Alma mater	University of Latvia
Profession	mathematician
Degree	Doctor of mathematics
Awards

Tatjana Ždanoka (Russian: Татья́на Арка́дьевна Ждано́к, Tatyana Arkadyevna Zhdanok, born May 8, 1950 in Riga) is a Latvian politician and a Member of the European Parliament. She is co-chairwoman of the Latvian Russian Union and sits with the European Greens–European Free Alliance group.

In the period of 1988-1989 she was one of the leaders of the Interfront, a political organization opposing Latvia's independence from the Soviet Union and too rapid market reforms. She remained active in the Communist Party of Latvia after January 1991, when the party leadership called for a coup against the government of the Latvian SSR (in opposition to a restoration of independence). In 1997 Tatjana Ždanoka was elected to Riga municipal council. In 1999 she was deprived of the mandate in the Council and is prohibited from further nomination for election to the Latvian Parliament or local councils under Latvian law due to her former allegiance with the Communist Party after January 1991. She is (with Alfrēds Rubiks) in the peculiar position of being restricted to Europarliament elections only.^[1] Ždanoka has been co-chairwoman of the LRU and its predecessor parties (Equal Rights (Latvia), For Human Rights in a United Latvia) since 1993.

Background[]

Born 1950 in Riga, Ždanoka is of mixed Latvian Jewish-Russian origin. The family of her father was decimated by Latvian Nazi collaborators during World War II.^[2]

Politician[]

Ždanoka became politically active in the late 1980s, at first a member of the Popular Front, she soon became one of the leaders of the Interfront, a political organization opposing Latvia's independence from the Soviet Union and too rapid market reforms. Prior to that, she taught mathematics at the University of Latvia, where she received her doctorate in mathematics in 1992. In 1989, she was elected to the Riga City Council, and in 1990, to the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR. Ždanoka was also active with the Communist Party of Latvia but never belonged to this party nomenclature.^{[citation needed]}

From 1995 till 2004 Ždanoka was co-chairwoman of the Latvian Human Rights Committee (a member of FIDH).^[3] She has also been one of the leaders of Equal Rights since it foundation in 1993 and of the For Human Rights in United Latvia alliance.

In 1999 Ždanoka was banned from running for the Latvian parliament Saeima and deprived of her seat on Riga City Council, because she had participated in two seats of the Communist Party's Audit Committee after the party leadership called for a coup against the elected government of the Latvian SSR in January 1991. Subsequently, she sued Latvia in the European Court of Human Rights.

With the court case pending, the Latvian parliament decided not to impose restrictions on former members of the Communist Party in the 2004 European Parliament elections. Ždanoka was elected to the European Parliament in June 2004 and won the court case a few days later with a margin of 5-2.^[4] Latvia appealed the decision to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that Latvia's emergence from totalitarian rule brought about by the occupation of Latvia had not been sufficiently taken into account, and on March 16, 2006, the court ruled 13-4 that Ždanoka's rights had not been violated. The Court also called the Latvian legislature to "keep the statutory restriction under constant review, with a view to bringing it to an early end (..) the failure by the Latvian legislature to take active steps in this connection may result in a different finding by the Court".^[5]

In 2005 Ždanoka became one of the founders of the EU Russian-Speakers' Alliance.^[6]

In 2004, she ran successfully for MEP as a candidate of the largest Russian political bloc in Latvia.^[7] She also won a seat in 2009.^[1] In the European Parliament she was a member of the fraction The Greens–European Free Alliance.

In 2014 Ždanoka took part in the controversial Crimean referendum as an "international observer" in a trip paid by the European Union.^[8] Her support for the referendum outcome of Crimea’s accession to Russia and other remarks were scolded by the president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz as being "completely contradictory to the position of the European Parliament and the EU." who said that she had "absolutely no right and certainly no mandate from this Parliament to make such comments on its behalf." Ždanoka responded by pointing out that Schulz is an MEP "just like she is", and that only her voters can tell her what to do.^[9][10] Co-chairwoman of the Greens/European Free Alliance Rebecca Harms deemed Ždanoka's actions and statements as "totally unacceptable" and "in complete and direct opposition with the very clear position the Greens/EFA group has taken since the outset on this issue", calling the European Free Alliance to expel Ždanoka from its ranks. Ždanoka's actions were also condemned by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs, with Ministry's press secretary Kārlis Eihenbaums pointing out that Ždanoka did not to represent Latvia nor the EU, as she did not have any official authorization from Latvian institutions to do so.^[11]

On March 11, 2014 Ždanoka and her party organized a rally at the European Commission Representation in Riga participated by about 200 people who expressed support for Russians living in Crimea and separation of Crimea from Ukraine.^[12] In May, Ždanoka suggested to the European Council to classify Ukrainian political bloc Right Sector as a "terrorist organization."^[13]

In 2016 Ždanoka voted against the European Parliament resolution of 23 November that condemned the use of disinformation and propaganda by Russia and Islamist terrorist organisations and called for strengthening EU’s "strategic communication" task force, as well as investing more in awareness raising, education, online and local media, investigative journalism and information literacy.^[14] Prior to the vote she distributed a letter to other MEPs, saying that the resolution crosses "all red lines" and that Russia's state-sponsored news and information channels are no different to Western media that exhibit "double standards", recommending them to watch Russia Today and form their own opinion of the channel.^[15]

A submission has been made by another Latvian MEP, Kārlis Šadurskis, to the Latvian state prosecutor to investigate Ždanoka for undermining the Latvian state in her support for Russia. In his submission, Šadurskis pointed to her participation at events organised by "Essence of Time" that advocates the restoration of the USSR.^[16] The application of Šadurskis was rejected by Security Police who did not find a crime in Ždanoka's actions.^[17]

In January 2018 Ždanoka left European Parliament and returned to Latvian politics with the intention of running for 2018 Latvian parliamentary election in October.^[18] She was named Latvian Russian Union's #1 ticket for Vidzeme region, however on August 21 Latvia's Central Election Commission removed her from the list of candidates on the same basis that barred her from running in the 1999.^[19][20] Ždanoka contested it in the Administrative District Court, but the court upheld the decision made by the Central Election Commission.^[21][22] Ždanoka applied to the European Court of Human Rights, which has communicated her application to the Latvian government in 2021.^[23]

On March 5, 2019 State Security Service launched a criminal procedure over incitement to ethnic hatred or discord for Ždanoka's remarks at a discussion organized by her at the European Parliament, where she likened the situation of ethnic Russians and Russian speakers in Latvia to Jews prior the World War II.^[24][25] The case was terminated by the SSS in 2020, for absence of any crime in Ždanoka's remarks.^[26]

Criticism[]

In 2020 Ždanoka, alongside her party members Miroslav Mitrofanov and Andrejs Mamikins, was included in the unofficial European Platform for Democratic Elections^{[clarification needed]} database of "biased observers" for backing disputed elections in Russia and separatist areas in Ukraine.^[27]

The right-wing Jamestown Foundation's political analyst Vladimir Socor has called her a "radical" opposed to Latvian national statehood.^[7]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tatjana Ždanoka.

• Ždanoka's résumé at LRU website
• Tatjana Ždanoka in the European Parliament
• HRUL in European Parliament: Europeanisation of a Soviet Legacy? by A. Vysotskaya
• Press release of ECHR on judgement in case Ždanoka vs. Latvia, 2004
• B. Bowring Negating Pluralist Democracy: The European Court of Human Rights Forgets the Rights of the Electors // Prava Cheloveka: Praktika Yevropeiskovo Suda po pravam cheloveka (Human Rights: Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights) 6 (27), pp. 28–80.