The assistant: Was Tatjana Ždanoka’s European Parliamentary aide selected by her FSB handler?

“Tatjana, hello. This is Dmitry. Our conversation has had results. When do you plan to be in Moscow?”

In the summer of 2014, someone known only as “Dmitry” emailed Tatjana Ždanoka, a member of the European Parliament. The trip to the Russian capital under discussion in their back-and-forth had nothing to do with tourism.

Ždanoka replied that there were no plans, but if she were invited to appear on “Solovyov’s or another [person’s] program, I will definitely come,” she added, referring to Vladimir Solovyov, one Russia’s most fanatically pro-Kremlin state television presenters. “It would be even better if Miroslav [Mitrofanovs] was also invited,” Ždanoka added, referring to a Lativan MP and fellow member of the Latvian Russian Union Party. “I am sending a link to his biography on the party’s website.”

Dmitry replied: “You read my mind. I wanted to ask for his details; there is an agreement. Second question. We discussed the possibility of taking on a student to you as an assistant. The candidature has been found. What documents are needed, and what steps should be taken? Thank you.”

Ždanoka answered that the “young man” – the aforementioned student assistant – should write to her official email address.

“It will be a girl,” Dmitry clarified before reporting that Mitrofanovs’ CV had been sent. He then asked whether the Latvian parliamentarian was prepared to speak only to VGTRK — the consortium of channels that airs Solovyov’s carefully orchestrated talk show — or whether the Kremlin-controlled Channel One were also suitable.

“Channel One is even better,” Ždanoka wrote back.

A few weeks later, she confirmed that she and Mitrofanovs were traveling to Russian-occupied Crimea. They were going to be passing through Moscow, and perhaps they could meet then.

Dmitry agreed, arranging to meet “at the same Kofemaniya.”

Half a year after the correspondence, Yulia Satirova officially became Ždanoka’s assistant in Brussels, according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Ždanoka, who chose to answer The Insider and Re:Baltica’s questions as part of a live show aired on the party’s Tik Tok, Facebook, and YouTube channels, said that Satirova’s parents were from Odesa. Satirova, she elaborated, was in Odesa in 2014 when a clash between pro-Ukrainian activists and an encampment of pro-Russian demonstrators led to a fire at the local trade union building that killed 42 people and injured more than 200, almost exclusively from the pro-Russian faction. The young woman was evidently so affected by these events that she decided to turn to politics. Satirova was studying in Frankfurt, Germany at the time, according to Ždanoka, and her university agreed to pay for her internship with the Latvian MEP.

Information found by The Insider and Re:Baltica confirms Ždanoka’s statement. Satirova’s social media accounts show photos of protests in Odessa and at the trade union building just before the fire broke out.

A relative of her’s, wearing a Soviet army boat on her head and an orange-and-black St. George’s ribbon on her chest as part of May 9 Victory Day celebrations, mentioned in an Instagram post that her parents were visiting from Odesa.

However, The Insider and Re:Baltica also discovered that Satirova avoids publicity. This is evidenced both by her sparse social network profiles and by the content of Ždanoka’s emails.

After graduating from the Russian State University for the Humanities, Satirova studied in Germany or Austria — or maybe both. Her various profiles offer various hints and little clarity. Her VKontakte photo album contains pictures of her — with long, bushy hair and a childlike face that makes her look much younger — playing the violin in the orchestra of Vienna University in 2013.

But around 2015, when Satirova started working for the European Parliament, the private images largely stopped appearing. There are a few selfies, but mostly pictures of nature. There are no photos of her working at the EP, even though her duties there continued until 2019. On social media, she hides behind other names.

There are only a few links on the internet about Satirova’s connection to the EP.

In 2015, the website of a Swedish NGO mentioned having contacted Ždanoka’s assistant — Satirova — to find out the progress of a petition of interest to them. In 2017, she and Ždanoka were listed as participants in a conference in Bulgaria entitled “Black Sea: cooperation or confrontation?”

It is no coincidence that there is so little information about Satirova online. In 2017, Satirova emailed Ždanoka with a draft press release for another discussion, this one on the alleged “Violation of human rights…in Ukraine.”