The son of one of Putin’s top aides was compelled to join the Russian army after boasting in the past that his father’s contacts would prevent him from travelling to Ukraine.
Last year, journalists used a sting operation to catch 32-year-old Nikolay Peskov saying he would make connections to evade conscription.
But it was later discovered that his father, 55-year-old Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s longtime spokesman, had instead made arrangements for Nikolay to be transported to the conflict to work as an artilleryman.
It is a rare example of the son of a top official fighting in the conflict, even though it appears he was not on the frontlines where tens of thousands of ‘cannon fodder’ Russians have perished.
‘Of all my acquaintances [in high circles] just one person [Dmitry] Peskov, at one time known as a complete liberal, asked me about his son who had spend some of his life….in England,’ said Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the notorious Wagner Group.
‘[Peskov] came to me and said: ‘Take him as a simple artilleryman’
‘He served like everyone else, knee-deep in mud and sh** manning a Uragan [multiple rocket launcher]…
‘Very few people know about this.’
As well as being the dictator’s mouthpiece, Dmitry Peskov is one of Putin’s most senior officials, acting as the deputy head of his sprawling administration.
It appears Peskov sent his son to war after being stung by a prank call on livestream Popular Politics, a channel linked to the team of jailed Putin foe Alexei Navalny.
The caller posed as an army mobilisation officer.
But Peskov’s son told him: ‘You must understand I am Mr Peskov.
‘It’s not quite right for me to be there [at the conscription office].
‘To cut it short, I’ll be sorting this out at another level.’
He told the ‘mobilisation officer’ that there were ‘political nuances’ about his call-up, without explaining his father was Putin’s trusted spin-doctor.
But Peskov’s son also told him: ‘If I have to defend my motherland, don’t worry, I’ll be with you.’
Now Prigozhin has revealed that Nikolay did serve at least for several months.
Earlier – long before the current war – Nikolay was a conscript in Russia’s nuclear rocket forces.
He later worked as a sports journalist with the RT ‘propaganda’ media network .
On his mother’s side, he is the great-grandson of notorious Soviet Marshal and Stalin crony, Semyon Budyonny.
Former defence minister of so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Igor ‘Strelkov’ Girkin, said that Nikolay was likely 14 miles from the frontline in a role with ‘minimal risk’.
But he admitted the Kremlin scion was rare in being sent to the front among the offspring of the elite.