Dmitry Peskov on Russia

Public disputes concerning Russia, including its government, institutions, officials and citizens, and disputes over Russia's relations with other states.

How we classify topics

Statement history

2 statements on this page. Dates: October 5, 2026 to October 11, 2026

2 matching statements. Dates: October 5, 2026 to October 11, 2026

2 published statements. Dates: October 5, 2026 to October 11, 2026

Defended or excused

1 published statement. Dates: October 11, 2026

1 statement on this page. Dates: October 11, 2026

Dmitry Peskov

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

October 11, 2026Defended 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)”

Dmitry Peskov

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

October 5, 2026Explicitly 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 sourceRIA 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

RIA Novosti quotes Peskov and says he was answering a question on whether the Kremlin is following the situation in the Irkutsk region; the page shows 12:33 Moscow time. It prints the first sentence with a dash where TASS's text, as Fontanka reprints it, has a verb for is. It also carries the rest of the answer, including the remark about Rospotrebnadzor's professionals.

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