Slovenian Prime Minister at Centre of Scandal over Detention of Russian Spies

The detention of two alleged Russian spies in Slovenia in November 2022 has become the subject of accusations against Prime Minister Robert Golob of interfering with law enforcement agencies.

According to Euractiv, Golob is accused of interfering with the suspected spies' arrest because the original date of the arrest would have coincided with a significant referendum, which he allegedly did not want to overshadow the government's victory.

The staggering claim was made by Tatjana Bobnar, former Interior Minister, who quit in December 2022 after only six months in office due to her disagreement with Golob over what she perceived as unjustified pressure on the police force.

Earlier this week, Bobnar gave evidence to a parliamentary inquiry into alleged pressure on law enforcement. While that portion of her testimony was not public, her statements were quickly leaked to the media.

Golob denied the allegations, saying "this is yet another hallucination that is utterly untrue".

"No prime minister has the power to achieve that, let alone demand that," he said on a Wednesday evening television show, referring ostensibly to his demand to move the date.

His assertion was supported by SOVA, the national intelligence and security service, which made a rare public statement. The service called the allegations that Golob influenced the time of detention false.

SOVA said it had planned its activities in conjunction with a special police unit known as the National Bureau of Investigation, and the agency's director suggested possible dates "based on operational and tactical reasons, and most certainly not at the request of the prime minister or anyone else."

Now these allegations are being considered by the parliamentary commission for the supervision of intelligence and security services. The head of the commission and opposition MP Viktor Žakelj said that the information they have is contradictory and deserves further investigation.

Žakelj said parliamentarians want to determine "whether the arrest date was picked professionally or politically."

Following Golob's rebuttal, Bobnar — the former interior minister and current presidential advisor — doubled down on her assertion. The office of President Nataša Pirc Musar stated, "She stands firmly behind her testimony and expects that the [inquiry] commission will do its job independently of various political pressure."

A referendum took place in Slovenia on 27 November 2022, and the detention of two Russian spies was revealed late in January 2023.

Two Russian agents with citizenship of a South American country worked under false identities, and they were detained in a rented office in the Bežigrad district of Ljubljana.