The Dispute Index

Dmitry Peskov

Portrait of Dmitry Peskov
Kremlin.ruSourceCC BY 4.0Cropped to a 3:4 portrait frame by Wikimedia Commons contributors; no further changes.

Dmitry Peskov is the Press Secretary of the President of Russia and Deputy Chief of the Presidential Executive Office, posts he has held since May 21, 2012. A graduate of Moscow State University's Institute of Asian and African Countries, he worked at the Soviet and Russian foreign ministry and at the embassy in Ankara, joined the president's press service in 2000, and was press secretary to the prime minister from 2008 to 2012.

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What DI has documented

DI has documented statements by Dmitry Peskov on International Relations, Public Health, and Russia. Read the quotations, original sources and related cases below.

Topics in this coverage

Statements by Dmitry Peskov

Portrait of Dmitry Peskov

Dmitry Peskov

Role at the time: Press secretary to Russian President Vladimir Putin

Defended or excused

Statement summary

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti that Trump believes it is time for a new Ukrainian president because Zelenskyy has not taken on the difficult decisions needed to stop the war.

“Trump said that he believes the time has come for a new president. Why? Because the president of Ukraine has to make very responsible and very difficult decisions to stop this war. Either Zelenskyy takes on that responsibility and shows that kind of political will, or he does not. So far he has not. (Translated from Russian. Original: Трамп сказал, что он считает, что пришло время для нового президента. Почему? Потому что президент Украины должен принять очень ответственные и очень сложные решения для остановки этой войны. Или Зеленский берет на себя такую ответственность, проявляет такую политическую волю, или он этого не делает. Пока он этого не делает)”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Peskov comments on Trump's remarks about a change of leadership in Ukraine (in Russian)Article text, quotation attributed to Dmitry Peskov
Why we used this label

The reference point is President Trump's October 10, 2026 call for Ukraine to get a new president. Peskov explains the call and backs its reasoning. After saying Trump believes it is time for a new president, he asks why and answers that the Ukrainian president has to make very difficult decisions to stop the war, then gives his own verdict that so far Zelenskyy has not. Supplying the reason for the call and saying Zelenskyy fails that test argues the call is justified, which goes beyond reporting what Trump said, so we labeled it as defending the call.

Read statementTrump says it's time for Ukraine to get a new president; Kyiv says Ukrainians will decide
Portrait of Dmitry Peskov

Dmitry Peskov

Role at the time: Press secretary of the President of Russia, answering journalists' questions in a conference call

Explicitly stayed out

Response to this claim

An employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute has been diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown etiology, expanded testing of her material found no microorganisms connected to her professional activity, and a biosafety commission found no emergency situations in work with pathogenic microorganisms at the institute, Rospotrebnadzor said on October 4, 2026.

“In this case, the lead agency with competence in this area is Rospotrebnadzor. And it is Rospotrebnadzor's official statements that one should rely on, without listening to various rumors, various speculation and so on. There is Rospotrebnadzor, where highly qualified professionals in this field work (Translated from Russian. Original: В данном случае головное ведомство, которое компетентно в этой области, - это Роспотребнадзор. И именно на официальные заявления Роспотребнадзора нужно ориентироваться, не слушая разные слухи, разные рассуждения и так далее. Есть Роспотребнадзор, где работают высокие профессионалы в этой области)”
Open source (opens in a new tab)RIA Novosti, October 5, 2026: Peskov urged people to follow official statements on the situation in the Angara region (Песков призвал слушать официальные заявления по ситуации в Приангарье)Second paragraph, quotation attributed to Peskov
Why we used this label

The reference point is the proposition that the illness of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute employee, reported to have died on October 1 or 2, 2026, was plague. Peskov answers a question about whether the Kremlin is following the situation by naming Rospotrebnadzor as the competent agency and urging reliance on its statements, without saying what the illness was, so we used Explicitly stayed out. The closest competing label is Challenged the characterization, because he refers to rumors and speculation. We did not use it because the passages we found do not say which accounts he means and do not dispute plague by name.

Read statementDid plague cause the reported death of an employee of Russia's Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute?

A participant is a subject of the case. A speaker has a statement documented in it. A commentator has an opinion or editorial documented in it.