By: Nova24tv.si
The traffic accident involving Nataša Pirc Musar continues to stir public opinion, and foreign media are reporting on it as well, since it revealed the unusual and close friendship between the president and the Russian woman Viktorija Krivolucka. The latter was the president’s passenger at the time of the accident, and now not only numerous trips by Pirc Musar to Russia are coming to light, but also the connections of her friend with the notorious intelligence operative Roman Jeglič.
The Austrian Press Agency (APA) and the Slovenian outlet Dnevnik joined forces in investigating the past of Viktorija Krivolucka through accessible Russian databases. They uncovered her connections with Jeglič, as well as indications that she was apparently the host of the president during her visits to Russia. The two last travelled together in Russia only a few weeks before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Reports of the Slovenian president’s “Russophilia” are now appearing abroad as well, since Austrian media describe her as the owner of the Russian‑style villa Ruska Dača in Ljubljana, which was purchased by the company of her husband, Aleš Musar. The couple renovated the villa in 2016, and according to APA, the Musar family “is considered to be very Russophile.”
Available data also reveal that Nataša Pirc Musar frequently travelled to Russia. Since 2015, her travel companion on seven occasions was precisely Viktorija Krivolucka. Pirc Musar last visited Russia in December 2021, celebrating the arrival of 2022 there. The war in Ukraine began in February of that year. At that time, the Musar family felt obliged, through Aleš Musar’s company, to state publicly that they opposed Russian aggression. But already in December, when Pirc Musar was travelling around Russia with Krivolucka, discussions were widespread about the high likelihood of a Russian attack on Ukraine. When Pirc Musar returned to Slovenia on 7 January, her companion was again Viktorija Krivolucka, who had left Ljubljana for Moscow a few days earlier to stop in her hometown of Krasnoyarsk
The president’s office provided very limited information. They stated only that before becoming president, Nataša Pirc Musar visited Russia several times as a tourist with family and friends. In fact, she travelled from Moscow or St. Petersburg with Krivolucka at least six more times. Former constitutional judge Peter Jambrek sees in these trips and connections with Russia a possible reason for Pirc Musar’s resignation from the presidency. He warns that her friendly ties with citizens of a country that grossly violates international law jeopardise the constitutional role of the head of state. He adds, however, that he himself is not preparing such a lawsuit.
The joint investigation by Slovenian and Austrian media has revealed something much deeper. There is a connection between Viktorija Krivolucka and the notorious intelligence operative Roman Jeglič. Although little is known about her life in Russia before she came to Slovenia, it turned out that at the residence where she was registered around 2010, several other people were also registered. Besides another woman with the surname Krivolucki, Roman Jeglič was registered there as well. It is an apartment block in Krasnoyarsk, located in Ladjedelniška ulica, in Russian, Sudostroiteljnaja Street. When Andrej Musar’s company Ruska dača, d. o. o. was established in Slovenia in 2010, it listed precisely this address.
Roman Jeglič is not a well‑known name in Slovenia today. He moved to Russia in the mid‑1990s, but during Slovenia’s independence period (1991–1993) he served as deputy director of the Security‑Information Service (VIS). Even more telling is the fact that in 1988, as head of the criminal suppression service of the Ljubljana police administration (UNZ), Jeglič was the one who signed the report that led to the high‑profile JBTZ affair and the arrest of the current prime minister, Janez Janša.
In 1991, Jeglič became deputy director of the VIS, and in this position he was a central figure in yet another scandal in 1993, he sent a letter to then‑prime minister Janez Drnovšek, which led to the widely publicised dismissal of his superior, Miha Brejc. He was also later allegedly connected to the controversial pyramid scheme catch the cash, in which tens of thousands of gullible investors lost their money. It was precisely at that time that he fled to Russia, avoiding Slovenian justice. During that period, he was reportedly a representative of Gorenje in Krasnoyarsk. While, according to Dnevnik, Viktorija Krivolucka is not responding to journalists’ questions, the president’s office confirmed that Nataša Pirc Musar is aware that her close friend knows Roman Jeglič, who worked in Russia as a representative of Slovenian companies. However, according to the president, she has not been in contact with him for more than 15 years. Nataša Pirc Musar also denies knowing Jeglič herself.