According to the Database of Free Russia Forum, Dmitry Peskov’s position in the Russian government has made him Vladimir Putin’s defacto mouthpiece, a senior member of Putin’s administration, and a close confidant to the Russian president. This also means that he has also garnered his fair share of criticism.
Peskov is usually tasked with defending Putin’s actions, something he has occasionally done with ferocity. Per the Database of Free Russia Forum, he once spoke out against demonstrators protesting Russian law enforcement in 2012 by offering the colorfully put idea that “for a wounded riot police officer, the protesters’ liver must be smeared on the asphalt.”
In 2006, Peskov also defended the Russian president against accusations about the government’s involvement in the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, a former security officer who died after being poisoned by radioactive polonium-210 in 2006. As reported by the Database of Free Russia Forum, Peskov argued, ”It is impossible to imagine that the Russian government could stand behind the murder.” He also claimed the allegations were an attempt to smear Putin and the Russian government, saying, “This murder is a clear provocation to discredit the government of Vladimir Putin.”
In 2022, Peskov became a central figure in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. According to Forbes, Peskov, along with a group of Russian oligarchs, were the recipients of block sanctions from the United States. The publication underlined that the White House described them as an “expansive list of Putin’s cronies” and the intent for the sanctions is that those sanctioned “will be cut off from the U.S. financial system, their assets in the United States will be frozen, and their property will be blocked from use.”
