VRSIC, Slovenia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a conciliatory tone Saturday on a visit to Slovenia, shaking hands and honoring dead soldiers as he tested Western resolve in maintaining crippling sanctions against the Kremlin for its role in Ukraine. Slovenia, a small Alpine nation where U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's wife Melania was born and grew up, is a member of both the 28-nation European Union and NATO. On only his third visit to an EU nation this year, Putin attended the centenary commemoration of a chapel in the Julian Alps that was erected in honor of over 100 Russian and other World War I prisoners of war who died in an avalanche while building a winding mountain road for their Austrian army captors in 1915. Slovenian officials portrayed Putin's visit as strictly informal and ceremonial, but said he would talk with officials on economic and bilateral issues. Some Slovenian opposition parties believe that Putin's visit was an attempt to break Western unity over maintaining the sanctions against Moscow.