Party official sentenced to five years for espionage

Iļja Podkolzins, a board member of the political party Kopā Latvijai led by former Rēzekne mayor Aleksandrs Bartaševičs, has been sentenced to five years in prison for collecting intelligence in Latvia and passing it to Russian security services through the pro-Kremlin criminal organisation Baltic Antifašisti, LSM reported, citing the LETA news agency.

Podkolzins reached an agreement with a prosecutor to admit guilt. He was also placed under probation supervision for one year.

The judgment has not yet taken effect and may be appealed within 10 days.

Firmas.lv information shows that Podkolzins ceased to be a board member of Kopā Latvijai on July 30.

According to the indictment, Podkolzins obtained and passed intelligence about critical transport and logistics infrastructure in Latvia, including hangars at Riga Airport and their use, as well as access control and security procedures at the airport.

He also collected and passed information about the construction of border and border-area infrastructure, defence and military mobility measures near the Russian border, training involving foreign soldiers in Latvia, and specific Latvian nationals, the State Security Service said.

TV3 programme Nekā personīga reported that leaked correspondence from Russia indicated Podkolzins had been in contact with Sergei Vasilyev, who gives interviews in Russian media as the leader of Baltic Antifašisti. The correspondence reportedly showed that Podkolzins travelled to Moscow several times in 2023 and 2024, where he met Vasilyev.

Materials obtained by the programme indicated that Podkolzins, using the alias Vadim Sedov, sent information about sites at Riga Airport, including hangars and the cargo stored in them.

Publicly available information shows that Podkolzins previously served as a member of the Daugavpils City Council, headed the Latvian Investment and Development Agency’s representative office in Russia, worked as an economic attaché at the Latvian Embassy and was active in the aviation sector.

The State Security Service detained four people on suspicion of espionage in January, based on information obtained during an investigation. The service said the Latvian residents had systematically and purposefully collected various types of intelligence and passed it to Baltic Antifašisti for onward transmission to Russia’s Federal Security Service and other institutions of the aggressor state.