The founder of PMC “Wagner” Yevgeny Prigozhin claims that the son of the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov fought in Ukraine as part of this military group. Prigozhin stated this in a conversation with Alexander Simonov from RIA FAN.
“Of all my acquaintances, one person – Dmitry Sergeevich Peskov, who was considered a complete liberal at the time – his son, who lived part of his life in America, I think, if I am not mistaken, or in England… He came and said: “Take him as an ordinary gunner”. By the way, he worked quite well. As an ordinary gunner, knee-deep in mud and la..a, on the “Hurricane”. Not many people know about him – said Prigogine, without to give other details.
Prigozhin did not specify the name of Peskov’s son, who, according to him, served in the PMC. Prigozhin’s description fits the older son of Russian presidential press secretary Nikolai Cholez, who lived in Britain for 10 years and returned to Russia in 2011-2012.
The publication “Meduza” asked Dmitry Peskov in Telegram if he really asked Yevgeny Prigozhin to take his son to serve in PMC “Wagner” and for him to serve under a contract with this PMC. Peskov read the question, but left it unanswered.
In 2017, Russian politician Alexei Navalny’s team published an investigation into Nikolai Choles, Peskov’s eldest son, who bears his stepfather’s surname. In the UK, where Chowles lived for around ten years, he was tried for two counts of assault and robbery and spent more than a year in prison, the inquest heard. Choles himself said the investigation was a “nightmare”, “horror” and “a provocation”.
In March 2022, Nikolai Choles came under US sanctions imposed following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In September 2022, Dmitry Nizovtsev, an associate of Alexei Navalny, posing as a military commissar, called Peskov’s son and asked him if he was ready to fight in Ukraine. Nikolai Choles refused to come to the military district, declaring that if “the motherland has to be defended, don’t worry, I will be with you”. Afterwards, Dmitry Peskov did confirm that Navalny’s associates had spoken to his son, but said that the “meaningful part” had been cut from the recording.
