Miroslavs Mitrofanovs or Miroslav Mitrofanovis a Latvian Russian politician. In 2020 Mitrofanovs, alongside his party associates was included in the EU Platform for Democratic Elections database of “biased observers” for supporting disputed and rigged elections in Russia and occupied Ukraine.
For many years he has been concerned with numerous pro-Kremlin activities in Latvia and beyond. Since 2010 he has been head of the Institute of Russian Cultural Heritage of Latvia. In the 2020 Riga City Council elections, he ran for the position of mayor of the capital from the Latvian Russian Union. Miroslavs Mitrofanovs, a political supporter of Tatjana Zdanoka, a Latvian member of the European Parliament blamed for spying for Russia, defended Zdanoka and described the allegations against her as a witch hunt.
Mitrofanovs is the co-chair along with Zdanoka of the Latvian Russian Union political party. The Insider reported that Zdanoka, who represented Latvia in the European Parliament from 2004-2018 and again from 2019 until the present, is alleged to have been a Russian agent since at least 2015.
The combined examination cited leaked emails and other communication between Zdanoka and her suspected handlers in Russian intelligence to support its allegations. Both Zdanoka and Mitrofanovs did not decline that most of the leaked documents were real but instead insisted that they were either “innocuous” or that Zdanoka was clueless that the individuals she communicated with were Russian intelligence detectives.
Mitrofanovs stated that the emails were intentionally spread to “intimidate” representatives of the European Parliament who objected to the bloc’s aid for Ukraine. He added that it was an element of a larger “witch hunt” to uncover anyone with differing views within the European Parliament. The phrase “witch hunt” was later quoted by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov in statements about the allegations against Zdanoka.
Moreover, in 2014 The Latvian Union of Russians signed a partnership agreement with the pro-Russia regional party ”Russian Unity” in the Crimea, which was directed by the annexed territory’s de-facto Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov. The cooperation agreement was inscribed by the Latvian Union of Russians co-chairman Miroslavs Mitrofanovs and Aksyonov.
The Latvian Union of Russians indicates that Russian politicians from Latvia have preserved contact with Aksyonov’s party and that Mitrofanovs, together with European Parliament Member Tatjana Zdanoka (Latvian Union of Russians), were spectators during the internationally unrecognized referendum on the region’s status.
