By: Gašper Blažič
We reported on how President Nataša Pirc Musar was unsettled by Prime Minister Janez Janša’s invitation to U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Slovenia. Of course, this bypassed the usual protocol under which the President of the Republic is the person who sends official invitations to foreign heads of state.
That point about protocol is valid, and Pirc Musar herself reportedly has nothing against such a visit. However, she has so far not taken the opportunity to invite Trump herself. For example, she could have done so a year ago when she headed the Slovenian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. She attended a reception at the White House, but apparently nothing beyond the customary handshake and photo opportunity occurred. As a result, the only meeting Trump had with a Slovenian politician during this term was in Paris, where then-Prime Minister Robert Golob famously managed to encounter him in a “bathroom ambush.”
It is worth asking, however, whether Pirc Musar simply missed the opportunity herself or whether the American hosts made it clear to her that she was not exactly the person with whom the U.S. President wished to hold substantive discussions. Assuming, of course, that it is true that the Slovenian President allegedly “has a lot to say” to Trump. She appeared to demonstrate this in her speech to the UN last year, where she indirectly criticised the United States as well.
It is also interesting to observe how representatives of Slovenia’s transitional left speak in very general terms about Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Only the current Prime Minister Janez Janša reminded the international public that representatives of the aggressor state also sit on the UN Security Council. Pirc Musar likewise mentioned this issue last year, but focused primarily on Israel and Gaza, seeking to support her criticism of Israel by arguing that the United States backs that country and that the Security Council is therefore held hostage by the great powers. If officials in the Kremlin heard that speech, the author suggests, they must have laughed out loud.
Perhaps there is, however, a more substantial reason why Pirc Musar was unable to establish serious contact with Trump. In recent years, it has emerged, according to reports cited even by mainstream media outlets such as RTV Slovenia, that the number of Russian citizens granted Slovenian citizenship through exceptional naturalisation increased significantly during the previous government. More than fifty such cases allegedly occurred, reportedly linked mostly to economic interests. This was particularly unusual given that it happened after the start of Russia’s open aggression against Ukraine and amid EU sanctions on Russia. Although these cases were reportedly presented as relocations of Russian capital abroad, the author claims they turned out to involve significant security risks. The most widely discussed example mentioned is that of Viktoriya Krivolutskaya, described as a personal friend of Nataša Pirc Musar and someone involved in a traffic accident in the Kastelec tunnel earlier that summer. Krivolutskaya reportedly obtained Slovenian citizenship based on outstanding sporting achievements in bowling, although the article claims those achievements have never been publicly clarified. Her naturalisation took place in 2016 during the government of Miro Cerar and was reportedly completed in just 54 days.
It is worth remembering that Milan Kučan and Zoran Janković are still regarded as long-standing friends of the Kremlin and that Pirc Musar belongs to their sphere of influence. The same is said of Robert Golob, despite efforts by the individuals involved to distance themselves from one another. Of course, the CIA also knows very well who is who in Slovenian politics…