By: Dr Metod Berlec
In the current issue of Demokracija, ahead of the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, which we mark on 23 August, we write about post‑communist totalitarianism, which still burdens and developmentally limits our society and state; about the severe liquidity problems faced by the “depoliticised” RTV Slovenia under the leadership of Natalija Gorščak; about the state budget rebalance being prepared at the Ministry of Finance under Andrej Šircelj; and, of course, about the developments related to President Nataša Pirc Musar.
The traffic accident in the Kastelec tunnel, in which Pirc Musar was involved, revealed highly controversial background details of her long‑standing Russian connections, ranging from her close friendship with Viktorija Krivolucka to indirect contacts with Roman Jeglič, the man who in 1988, as head of the Criminal Suppression Service of the Ljubljana UNZ, signed the criminal report that led to the arrest of Janez Janša. In other words, the report which, under the direction of the Slovenian Party led by Milan Kučan and the Yugoslav People’s Army, triggered the arrest of the JBTZ quartet in the spring of 1988. Jeglič became deputy director of the Security‑Information Service (VIS) in 1991, which was then headed by Miha Brejc. Later, he became involved in the pyramid scheme Catch the Cash, in which many people lost their investments. He then fled to Russia as a precaution, where he allegedly served as a representative of Gorenje in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, according to experts, with the knowledge of Russian intelligence services.
The Austrian APA and Slovenian Dnevnik discovered in Russian databases that Viktorija Krivolucka – the passenger accompanying Nataša Pirc Musar at the time of the accident – lived for several years at the same address (in Krasnoyarsk) as Roman Andrejevič Jeglič. Krivolucka, with whom Pirc Musar and her husband Aleš Musar have been closely connected for years, hosted NPM multiple times during her numerous trips to Russia. Since 2015, they travelled there together at least seven times, most recently in December 2021 – just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Office of the President even confirmed that the “president was aware” that Krivolucka and Jeglič had been a couple, which is unsurprising, since “Vika” has been her best friend for twenty years, her bowling teammate, and also her business partner. Among other things, she is the procurator of Ruska dača. She is also said to have lived in an apartment allegedly purchased for her by Pirc Musar in 2012 in Ljubljana. Through this friendship, she reportedly obtained Slovenian citizenship in a questionable manner.
Foreign media now increasingly note that the Musar family is “very Russophile,” which is supported by the renovated villa Ruska dača they own. This assessment is difficult to dispute, as their controversial business activities strongly resemble those of Russian oligarchs who became wealthy during the transition period, something our magazine has written about many times. Thus, the question arises: has Pirc Musar for years been close to a person who very likely operates in the interests of Russian intelligence services? And given that she is now the president, this represents a security risk multiplied, or, as Igor Omerza wrote on X: “And if she reports, she does not report to Jeglič, but to Moscow. Bilo kuda Udba svuda!”