Slovenian president’s long-time Russian friend at centre of growing intelligence scandal

A political scandal that has gripped Slovenia in recent days centres on Viktorija Krivolucka (also known as Krivoluckaja), a long-time close friend of the country’s President since 2022, Nataša Pirc Musar. Recent investigative reporting by the Slovenian newspaper Dnevnik and the Austrian news agency APA has revealed that Krivolucka once lived with – and was romantically involved with – a controversial former Slovenian intelligence officer who later fled to Russia.

Krivolucka, who is of Russian origin and later obtained Slovenian citizenship, has been a close personal friend of the president for many years. The two women travelled together to Russia on at least seven occasions between 2015 and early 2022, including spending New Year 2021–22 in Moscow. The reporting also established that around 2009 Krivolucka shared an address in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk with Roman Jeglič and was in a relationship with him at the time.

Jeglič is a figure from Slovenia’s turbulent transition from Yugoslavia. In 1988, as a senior police official, he signed the criminal complaint that led to the arrest of Janez Janša, who now serves as Prime Minister, in the landmark JBTZ affair. After independence in 1991, Jeglič became deputy director of the Security-Information Service (VIS), Slovenia’s first post-independence intelligence agency and the forerunner of today’s Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency (SOVA). At the time, VIS was headed by Miha Brejc, while Jeglič was his deputy.

The president’s office has said that Pirc Musar was aware of her friend’s past relationship with Jeglič, has never met him herself, and that Krivolucka has had no contact with him for more than 15 years. Slovenia’s intelligence service has stated that it found no security concerns when it vetted Krivolucka for citizenship in 2016. Nevertheless, the revelations have raised questions in Slovenia about the president’s private contacts with Russia and possible security implications.

Against this backdrop, two significant new developments occurred on Tuesday.

Roman Jeglič spoke publicly for the first time since the story broke. In a brief telephone interview with the commercial television channel POP TV, he confirmed for the first time since the revelation that the president’s longtime friend lived with him in Siberia in 2009 and was also in a romantic relationship with him. He added: “I don’t play those kinds of games from 1949. Everything will fall into place.” The reference to 1949 alludes to the early years of the Tito–Stalin split and the political purges that followed in Yugoslavia. Jeglič also confirmed that he is currently living in Slovenia, in the Alpine resort area of Bohinj.

At the same time, Miha Brejc – the former head of VIS, a one-time European Parliament member for the centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), and a minister in the early 2000s – appeared on both public and commercial television. He described the friendship between the president and Krivolucka as “a very delicate situation” and urged Pirc Musar to act decisively.

“He fled to Russia because I was pursuing him with a criminal complaint over his actions in a number of matters,” Brejc said of Jeglič. “When he later returned by chance, they immediately locked him up; then – I don’t know why – they released him and he went straight back to Russia. If it is true that he obtained Russian citizenship, the situation is even more complicated, because Russian citizenship is not something you get just like that.”

Brejc called on the president to immediately sever all contacts not only with Krivolucka but also with other Russian acquaintances, including any linked to the business activities of her husband, Aleš Musar. “And of course she will also have to explain a little more about how these things developed,” he added. “You have to understand that Russia has maintained its own network of agents in Yugoslavia since 1945. These can be active agents as well as dormant agents who are activated when needed.”

The affair continues to dominate Slovenian political debate and has begun to attract attention in neighbouring countries and further afield in Europe.

The article in Slovenian by EUalive’s partner Siol.net can be found here.

Caption: Slovenia’s President Natasa Pirc Musar prepares ahead of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, 10 June 2026. EPA/BORISLAV TROSHEV