Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar denies links to Russian intelligence services

The Slovenian president, Natasa Pirc Musar, had to deny any link with the Russian intelligence services after a trivial car accident revealed her proximity to a Slovenian of Russian origin who was under suspicion. On Wednesday, the Parliamentary Commission for Security Issues, made up of members from all parties, called for an urgent session next week aimed at asking Slovenia's intelligence agency SOVA for a report on possible Russian interference in national sovereignty and security.

The day before, the Slovenian presidency had been forced, in the face of press revelations, to deny any link with Moscow. “We strongly deny that the president is collaborating with Russian intelligence networks,” she said in a statement Tuesday. Natasa Pirc Musar was hospitalized in July with a broken collarbone after a traffic accident during which her official vehicle also transported “two passengers who are friends of the president”.

Local media then revealed that one of these passengers was Viktorija Krivolucka, a long-time friend of the president, originally from Russia and naturalized Slovenian in 2016. Viktorija Krivolucka and Natasa Pirc Musar traveled to Russia together several times before the latter became president of her country in 2022, according to these media.

Viktorija Krivolucka confirmed she lived “for years” in Russia

On Monday, the Slovenian newspaper Dnevnik and the Austrian agency APA published an investigation claiming that Viktorija Krivolucka was closely linked to Roman Jeglic, a former deposed Slovenian intelligence official who fled to Russia in the 1990s. In a statement sent to the private television channel POP, Viktorija Krivolucka confirmed that she had lived "for years" with Roman Jeglic in Russia after he had left Slovenia, but claimed to have had no contact with him for 15 years.

The ruling Slovenian Democratic Party called on the government to deprive Natasa Pirc Musar, the country's president, of all access to intelligence reports, saying she herself could be linked to Russian services. The president's office on Tuesday denied any links between Viktorija Krivolucka and Russian intelligence, arguing that these links would inevitably have prevented her naturalization. Natasa Pirc Musar was elected as an independent candidate for the Slovenian presidency in 2022 and is generally considered liberal and pro-European, in favor of human rights, transparency and the rule of law. She has repeatedly denounced the armed invasion launched in 2022 by the Kremlin against Ukraine.