I only caught an echo of a story on Wednesday, so I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. It was this story by Dnevnik that made me look at the incident again…
JJ and Vlad while they were still chums…
Namely: The Prime Minister was due in Sankt Peterburg on Friday for an economic forum organized by Russian government. There, he was due to meet with President Putin, but canceled the visit just 24 hours prior to the meeting.
What. The. Fuck. ?!?
I’m not a foreign policy expert, but I’m sure there are things you just don’t do. Like cancel a meeting with the Russian president. Especially this Russian president. And especially since they seemed to hit it off quite well a year ago, when apparently a lot of high level business deals were agreed. Including a deal to sell the largest Slovene oil company Petrol to Russian Lukoil.
AHA! A clue, Sherlock!!!
Perhaps that’s it. Check this story out. It seems that Petrol’s CEO is not at all trhilled at the prospect of his business card being printed in cyrilic (although in my opinion going from Marko Kryžanowski to Марко Крижанов?кий is not such a big strech).
Which would of course all be well had Slovenia been a normal state like…… say…… um…… let’s see…… searching…… ah yes!….. like Malta, for example. But since Slovenia seems to be on a par with Cuba and the US (health system-wise) and Venezuela (freedom of media-wise), the definition of “normal” becomes pretty vague. Especially with this government.
Take Kryžanowski for example. He became CEO of Petrol against all odds, holding only semi-important positions before that (such as being CEO of Slovenian branch of Mercedez-Benz). But apparently he co-owned a car dealership in Grosuplje with the prime minister’s brother, and I’m sure that helped. But just to be on the safe side, Kryžanowski is also a nephew to Božo Dimnik, one of the most powerful Slovene lobbyists, who seems to have lobbied hard for a Petrol-Lukoil deal. Finance even ran Dimnik’s op-ed on the deal (Slovene only, free registration).
Now, it could be that JJ and his government took some intense heat for dealing with the Russkies (Foreign Minsiter and an international menace Dimitrij Rupel was sucking up to Condi Rice at the same time when JJ should have been glad handing Vlad), or it could be that Kryžanowski went haywire (which seems to be a reccuring theme with Janša for the past few weeks) and is dealing on his own.
In either case Janša ran for cover rather than having to face the music. Chicken…
Ko sem včeraj poslušala njegov nastop, ko je pojasnjeval, zakaj je zavrnil Vladimirčka, sem imela prav mešane občutke… zgledal je namreč kot da se mu po eni strani sladko jebe, po drugi pa, da je malce prestrašen. Bistvo pa je bilo po mojem to, da njegov argument ni imel ravno neke teže, sam ne vem, ako se je tega gospod predsednik zavedal.
Osebno se mi tudi zdi (kot laičnemu poznavalcu zunanje politike), da bi bilo za nas kot bodočo predsedujočo državo EU, vseeno bolje, ko bi do tega mitinga prišlo.
The chicken link was a nice touch 😉
@Morska: My thoughts exactly… Given the upcoming Slovene presidency over the EU, it wouldn’t suprise me at all if Putin sent an “Assistant to second undersecretary at the Minstry for Fog Producing” as his personal envoy to Slovenia.
@lisa: Thx! 😀 Sad, but true…
There wouldn’t have been a press conference for Janša after the meeting, would there? 😉
Anyway – If the rough idea I got of all that is about correct, it might come out worse than sorting things out with Putin asap. Maybe Janša will be requested to bend over to be fucked in some way…
Just linguistic interest of me as a “norec” learning Slovene for fun: what does “se mu sladko jebe” mean? Seems to be an interesting idiom 😉
The Russians never forget, that’s for sure…
As far as “se mu sladko jebe”… A rough translation would be that “he doesn’t give a sweet fuck” or something to that effect 😉
My prefered theory is Condi-Rupel duo. After German secret service fiasco this is the second (un)diplomatic mistake and I belive JJ has a very powerful godfather, considering the things he dares.
Yeah, I’m leaning in that direction, especially since I have the feeling that “Mapko” doesn’t even go to the loo without asking permission.
Oh, and thanks for the Alan Johnston button. Saw it on your blog and immediatelly followed suit.
Forse aveva paura di essere sedotto dalla bellezza di Putin. O aveva paura di perdere la sua donnina. I Russi sanno essere davvero sexi. 🙂
Sexi? Non sono interessanti …
Putin sicuramente no, ma qualcun altro potrebbe esserlo 🙂
Salut !