Background on the front in Ukraine. The son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov served as a gunner in the ranks of Wagner mercenaries. This is claimed by Evgheni Prigozhin, founder of the infamous Russian contractor company, on his Telegram channel. According to Prigozhin, last summer Peskov contacted him for advice since his son wanted to go and fight in Ukraine and “it was useless to dissuade him”. “I took it with me, changing my surname, first name and patronymic. Only the head of the personnel department and I knew about it,” he revealed on Telegram, explaining that the young man operated a Uragan rocket launcher.
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Prigozhin did not explicitly name the boy but seemed to be alluding to Nikolai Choles, Peskov’s son who was named after his stepfather and lived in the UK for 10 years: he returned to Russia around 2011-2012 after spending a year in a British prison for assault and robbery. In September 2022, Navalny’s aide Dmitry Nizovtsev managed to reach Choles by phone. Impersonating a recruiting officer, he had asked him if he was ready to go to war in Ukraine. Choles had refused to answer and report to the conscription office but had assured Nizovtsev: “If I have to defend the motherland, don’t worry, I’ll be there.” When pressed for a more specific answer, Choles said he would approach the issue “on a different level.” Peskov later confirmed that Nizovtsev had spoken to his son but had complained of “distortions” in the recording of the conversation. In reality, the call had been live streamed. Contacted by Meduza for clarification on his son’s enlistment in Wagner, Peskov did not respond.