The sanctions relate to violations of the regulations governing MEPs' activities.

President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola had said that the MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka, also spelled Zhdanoka, had breached EU regulations relating to declaring private interests and the receiving of gifts.

Metsola did not elaborate further, though announced on Wednesday a series of sanctions against Ždanoka in relation to the breach of the MEPs' code of conduct.

Ždanoka has not appealed the decision, Metsola added.

Ždanoka has been an MEP since 2004, the year Latvia joined the EU, and sat with the Greens/EFA group until 2022.

She had also, POLITICO reports, been working on behalf of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) "for several years," citing Russian investigative newspaper The Insider.

Ždanoka herself has denied these latter allegations, telling MEPs in February she was merely an "agent for peace," Politico continues.

Sanctions applied to Ždanoka by the parliament consist of a five-day fine of her daily allowance, amounting to €1,750 while she will also be banned from certain roles related to the European Parliament until the end of the mandate, which follows June's elections.

She is not expected to be re-elected in June.

The European Parliament has also opened its own administrative probe into Ždanoka, while Latvia's own secret services have initiated a criminal case against her also, POLITICO reports, citing local media in Latvia.

A further scandal has engulfed the EU parliament after revelations a Czech media outlet called Voice of Europe had allegedly been paying European politicians, including MEPs, in order to help peddle pro-Russian propaganda on that channel.

Early on this year The Insider made public emails between Ždanoka and the FSB, with whom she had been operating for "decades."

Latvia sends eight MEPs to the European Parliament in Strasbourg and Brussels, compared with seven from Estonia, the latter figure up one from the pre-Brexit tally. Latvia's population has plummeted over the past 20 years, from around 2.3 million to around 1.8 million at present. Estonia's has remained more stable over that time frame, at around 1.3 million.

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