The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, mentioned on Monday that his son had fought in Ukraine, highlighting the Moscow elite’s uneven participation in a conflict effort that has to date value the lives of tens of hundreds of Russian troopers.
Mr. Peskov’s remarks got here after Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the chief of Russia’s Wagner non-public navy firm, mentioned on Saturday that Mr. Peskov’s son had served as an artilleryman along with his mercenary group for six months. The son, Nikolai Peskov, 33, described his purported service to Komsomolskaya Pravda, a pro-government newspaper, in an article revealed the subsequent day.
On Monday, Mr. Peskov, President Vladimir V. Putin’s longest-serving chief spokesman, was requested about his son at a day by day press briefing.
“It is true, he did take part in the special military operation,” he instructed journalists, utilizing the federal government’s euphemism for the conflict in Ukraine. He declined to supply additional particulars.
None of the accounts might be independently verified, and it was not doable to find out whether or not Mr. Prigozhin was stating a uncommon instance of a rich younger Russian’s navy service or was trying a public relations stunt to needle Kremlin insiders.
Mr. Prigozhin, a social media provocateur, has usually criticized the nation’s elite for weak patriotic sentiment. In March, Mr. Prigozhin claimed that the son-in-law of Russia’s protection minister, Sergei Okay. Shoigu, had joined Wagner. It turned out that the fighter he recognized was of no relation to Mr. Shoigu, a frequent goal of Mr. Prigozhin’s criticism.
Some components of Mr. Prigozhin’s account of the youthful Mr. Peskov’s service seemed like trolling.
Mr. Prigozhin mentioned that in Wagner, Nikolai Peskov had labored loading ammunition on an task that will have positioned him miles behind the entrance line. He additionally mentioned that Nikolai Peskov stood out from his comrades as a result of he spoke English and “looked too clever.”
Several performing and former Russian officers have volunteered for the navy because the begin of the invasion final 12 months, utilizing their service to bolster their nationalist credentials on social media.
But it has been troublesome to verify particulars of their service, together with whether or not they served in frontline roles.
In 2011, Nikolai Peskov posted photographs on social media that appeared to point out him collaborating in Russia’s compulsory one-year navy service.
Since Mr. Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine final 12 months, the youthful Mr. Peskov has been goaded about additional enlistment. Shortly after Mr. Putin introduced in September that he would mobilize 300,000 males to struggle, opposition activists claiming to be conscription officers prank-called him.
“Obviously, I won’t come,” a person described as Nikolai Peskov instructed the prank callers after being requested whether or not he would report back to the conscription workplace the subsequent day. “I’m going to resolve this on a different level.”
But he instructed the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that becoming a member of Wagner was his resolution, saying that he had obtained a medal “for bravery.”
He didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from The New York Times.
Oleg Matsnev and Alina Lobzina contributed analysis.
Source: www.nytimes.com