Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar has denied links to Russian intelligence after parliament’s Security Committee called for an urgent briefing from the country’s intelligence agency over alleged connections between the president and a Russian-born friend. The parliamentary committee on Wednesday requested a meeting next week with Slovenia’s intelligence agency, SOVA, to seek a report on possible links between Pirc Musar and Russian intelligence, local outlet Svet24 reported. Meanwhile, Slovenian MP Žan Mahnič of the ruling center-right Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) has called on the government to stop providing intelligence and security reports to the president, who ran as an independent, citing suspicions that she could be connected to a Russian spy network. “We strongly deny that the president collaborates with Russian intelligence networks,” Pirc Musar’s office said in a statement on Tuesday. Alleged ties to Moscow The scrutiny follows reports about Pirc Musar’s longtime friend Viktorija Krivolucka, a Russian-born Slovenian citizen. At the end of July Pirc Musar was hospitalized with a broken collarbone following a road accident. Krivolucka was also traveling in the president’s official vehicle at the time. Earlier this week, local media also reported that Krivolucka had close ties to Roman Jeglic, a disgraced former Slovenian intelligence official who fled to Russia in the mid-1990s. Krivolucka later confirmed that she had been in a romantic relationship with Jeglic and lived with him in Russia for several years. But she said that she has not been in contact with him for more than 15 years.
