Nikolai Peskov, a privileged descendant who joined Wagner

Nikolai Peskov, the son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov allegedly served in the mercenaries Wagner’s group on the eastern front of Ukraine as a unit gunner, according to his own father and mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Seduced by “used in Syria and elsewhere” Of Prigozhin’s men, Nikolai asked his father to connect him with the Wagner boss, according to some audio recordings circulating on the Telegram messaging app, which cite Ukrainian Pravda.

“Her son wanted to go to war and there was no way he would give up. I advised him not to go to the Ministry of Defense, because they will put him in the headquarters or use him as cannon fodder,” Prigozhin said through his media office.

Dmitry Peskov refused to assess his son’s role with mercenaries. He only commented that it was “his own decision” and that he was awarded a medal “for bravery” for his service.

This participation in the young men’s war is an exercise in caution in two ways. First of all, because Wagner’s boss would give Nikolai a false identity to protect him during his stay in Ukraine, which was also short, because He served only six months as a gunner, which means that he was not in the front line, but in a safer position, since the artillery operates from the rear. Something that would lead to a certain reading of “cowardice”.

On the other hand, Peskov wanted to escape from Prigozhin’s criticism of the sons of Russian oligarchs because, as a spokesman for the Kremlin, he did not want to turn them against the regime of Vladimir Putin, especially when the country’s elites had already suffered serious changes in their lifestyles due to the sanctions of Ukraine’s allies. “Of course, for normal people this is an unusual situation because everyone is used to the fact that the children of the elite are hidden by their parents,” said Prigožin.

The 33-year-old son of the Kremlin spokesman is also known as Nikolai Choles because he spent ten years in the United Kingdom, a country he left between 2011 and 2012. after working for Russia Today in the British Isles.

In an interview for the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, the eldest son assures that Wagner is a “friendly mixed collective” and adds that he would like to return to the war, to his companions: “One part of me wants to return to them.” He is currently on annual leave.

Wagner’s group is responsible for war crimes such as the killing of civilians and prisoners of war, often using excessive levels of violence.