Latvian financier accused of spying for Russia appears in court

A 73-year-old financier accused of gathering information for Russia appeared in court on Thursday, LSM reported. Jevgenijs Okss is accused of collecting information on two people living in Latvia for Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, and meeting an FSB representative in Moscow.

Okss has been in custody since mid-January, when Latvia’s State Security Service detained him on suspicion of spying for Russia. Investigators say he gathered information on a businessman known as “Vladimir”, who regularly travelled to Russia, including after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and on “Roman”, a university lecturer and information technology specialist who also regularly travelled to Russia.

According to the prosecution, Okss collected information from public sources about the two men’s occupations, education, economic circumstances and property. Prosecutor Mārtiņš Jansons said the FSB most likely wanted to learn more about them in order to recruit them or plan other activities against the Latvian state.

Okss denied the charges in court and also rejected his guilt during the pre-trial investigation.

He maintains that the information he collected and passed on was publicly available and therefore could not be considered espionage. Jansons said that under Article 85, Part One of Latvia’s Criminal Law, collecting and passing any information to a foreign intelligence service constitutes espionage.

Okss allegedly passed the information to Sergei Vasiliev, a representative of the pro-Kremlin organisation Baltic Antifascists who has fled to Russia and lives in Moscow. Vasiliev then passed it to an FSB operative.

The investigation also found that Okss met the FSB representative personally in Moscow. Vasiliev introduced the two men.

Four people in total allegedly passed information to Russia through Vasiliev, and all four have been charged with espionage.