BERLIN — High-stakes diplomacy isn’t the first thing one associates with Slovenia, but President Borut Pahor might be about to change that.

With a Slovenian-born first lady in the U.S. and close relations with both Moscow and Berlin, the leader of the small Alpine nation is maneuvering his country to play a bigger role on the world stage.

That ambition faced its first test this week as Pahor shuttled between Berlin, where he met with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday, and Moscow, where he was due to arrive Friday.

His goal: to cajole Russian leader Vladimir Putin into endorsing a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, where a recent flare-up in hostilities threatens to reignite a war that has already left thousands dead and destabilized the region.

“The purpose of my visit, politically speaking, is to try to do my best to convince President Putin to show a gesture of goodwill,” Pahor told POLITICO in an interview on Thursday during his stop in Berlin. "I'm going there as a friend of Moscow, calling on a friend to show his political wisdom and do the right thing with a ceasefire in the Ukraine.”

“With Trump, Putin is much more comfortable" — Borut Pahor

After visiting Moscow and St. Petersburg, Pahor will travel to Kiev to meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. By then, the Slovene leader hopes to have convinced Putin to embrace a ceasefire, though he was careful to temper expectations.

“I don't have any formal mandate,” he said. “In case I would achieve something, even a small step, I would be very happy.”

Putin more 'comfortable' with Trump

Pahor’s initiative comes at a delicate time for eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces on and off since 2014. Though fighting never fully stopped, the conflict was largely subdued until the recent surge in violence.

The beginning of Trump’s presidency marked the perfect moment for Russia to illustrate its willingness to compromise with the West, Pahor said, calling the new U.S. president “a game changer.”

“With Trump, Putin is much more comfortable,” he said.

Putin visited Pahor in Slovenia in July, one of only a handful of bilateral visits to the EU in recent years, and the two leaders conferred for hours in private.

Though Slovenia is a member of NATO and has supported the EU’s sanctions against Russia, the country has a more neutral view of Moscow than many of its allies. That difference is largely explained by history. Unlike the Baltic states and the Slavic countries of Eastern Europe, Slovenia, which belonged to the Habsburg Empire for much of its history, never suffered under Russian oppression.

“My country never experienced the brutality of Russia’s Red Army,” the Slovene president said.

To Moscow 'with an open heart'

Even as much of the rest of the EU has shunned Russia since its annexation of Crimea, Pahor, a Social Democrat who served as prime minister from 2008 until 2012, argues it is better to engage with Moscow than to isolate it — a view he shares with Trump.

“Being inactive, we will not achieve a lot,” he said.

Pahor proposed Slovenia as the venue for Trump’s first summit with Putin.

While Pahor said he wasn’t “naïve” about Putin, he displays a confidence in the Russian leader not shared by many of his European counterparts.

“I’ve never been betrayed by Putin,” he explained. “I’m going Moscow with an open heart.”

The Russia mission isn’t Pahor’s only effort to act as a bridge between Moscow and the West.

In his telephone call with Trump, Pahor proposed Slovenia as the venue for the American leader’s first summit with Putin, an offer he plans to make to Russian president as well. There would be some precedent for such a meeting: President George W. Bush held his first summit with Putin there in 2001.

Unlike Bush, who had difficulty distinguishing Slovenia and Slovakia, Trump knows it well, thanks to wife Melania, who was born in Novo Mesto.

Pahor declined to discuss the details of his discussion with Trump, except to say they had “a very nice debate.” The highlight, however, appears to have come when Trump put Melania on the phone.

“He invited the first lady to come on the phone and speak to me in the beautiful Slovene language,” Pahor said. “It was very touching. It was a lovely gesture.”