peskov yacht

A Russian Activist Caught Putin's Spokesman On A $425,000-A-Week Yacht

After getting a tip from a source, opposition politician Alexei Navalny tracked Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov to a honeymoon in Sardinia, well beyond his modest official means.

BuzzFeed News World Correspondent

His job may mostly consist of playing down stories about Russia's president, but Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's sandily mustached spokesman, has eclipsed even his own boss in the spotlight.

Last month, opposition politician Alexey Navalny noticed that the watch Peskov wore at his opulent wedding to Olympic figure skating champion Tatiana Navka cost $620,000 — more than five times his declared income .

Though Peskov claimed his wife had given him the watch — a limited edition Richard Mille RM 52-01 — as a wedding present, Navalny pointed out that Peskov's teenage daughter Elizaveta had posted a photo to Instagram of him wearing it months earlier.

View this photo on Instagram

On Monday, Navalny wrote a blog post citing an anonymous source who told him that Peskov and Navka were spending their honeymoon sailing around Sardinia on the Maltese Falcon, the world's second-most expensive luxury sailboat .

A week on the yacht costs about $425,000, according to the Maltese Falcon's website .

Navalny wouldn't tell BuzzFeed News who the source was. When asked if that opposition-minded socialite Ksenia Sobchak had also recently holidayed on Sardinia was a coincidence, Navalny said, "I don't think so," parsing a favorite Kremlin propaganda line.

"The glam types that hang out with Peskov and his wife are all annoyed by the hypocrisy," Navalny said. "They have to come back to Moscow with jamón and parmesan," banned there under an embargo on foods from countries that have passed sanctions against Russia, "and Peskov is saying that it's normal to tighten your belts [...] they see Peskov sunbathing and he says that you have to run over geese with a bulldozer ."

Navalny began combing the internet for more clues. Navka's daughter Alexandra had posted a photo of herself wearing a Maltese Falcon-branded bathrobe.

The photo matched up perfectly with a shot from a maltese falcon promo video ..

And she then posted another photo geotagged to a beach in Sardinia, then deleted it.

Peskov's daughter also posted a photo that matched up with another promo video . Her Instagram geotags matched up with the Maltese Falcon's tracking data .

A friend tagged both daughters in another instagram post from sardinia., oleg mitvol, a friend of peskov's, posted photos of two other yachts, one belonging to russian oligarch andrei melnichenko, that tracking data showed had followed the same course as the maltese falcon when he posted them., another person on a nearby yacht posted a photo of the maltese falcon captioned, "they say that there's a russian guy there with a #mustache and a #watch spending his #honeymoon with his #goldenskate" the post was later deleted..

Navalny, convicted twice on fraud charges he says were the Kremlin's attempt to stop his work, said that his investigation was an attempt to fill the gap left by Russia's shackled media.

"it's a total echo chamber here. when bill clinton got a $200 haircut, it was in the headlines for weeks . russian media don't do that," he said. "putin did the right thing — he destroyed all the media.".

Russia ranks a dismal 136th on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, level with Nigeria. Peskov routinely bats down or ignores news reports alleging staggering corruption among the highest level of the Kremlin.

Passport: Putin Spokesman Accused Again of Graft, This Time Over Luxury Yacht

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Putin Spokesman Accused Again of Graft, This Time Over Luxury Yacht

Dmitry peskov is in hot water over a trip he allegedly took on a luxury yacht off the coast of italy..

You would think that after already getting into hot water over corruption allegations linked to a $600,000 watch , Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov might want to keep a low profile. But the longtime Kremlin official’s extravagant lifestyle is once again being discussed in Russia -- this time over a trip that he allegedly took on a luxury yacht with his family and friends off the coast of the Italian island of Sardinia.

You would think that after already getting into hot water over corruption allegations linked to a $600,000 watch , Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov might want to keep a low profile. But the longtime Kremlin official’s extravagant lifestyle is once again being discussed in Russia — this time over a trip that he allegedly took on a luxury yacht with his family and friends off the coast of the Italian island of Sardinia.

The allegations come from a recent article by Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, who, citing an unidentified source, said he was tipped off about Peskov’s recent vacation with his new wife, Olympic figure-skating champion Tatiana Navka, and others aboard the yacht, which costs an estimated $390,000 per week. The luxury vessel, called the Maltese Falcon, is advertised as one of the most expensive yachting experiences in the world and comes with add-ons like jet-skis, kayaks, and even small sailing boats.

Navalny used an online yacht tracking service and followed geo-tagged social media posts from Peskov’s friend, former Moscow district official Oleg Mitvol, as well as Peskov’s stepdaughter, who can be seen wearing a bathrobe with “Maltese Falcon” written on it. Navalny says he has corroborated his source’s claims and now is demanding that Peskov, a state employee, explain how he could afford such an expensive trip on his public salary. “Dmitry Peskov would need to save up his full salary for three years just to afford this yacht for seven days,” wrote Navalny.

Even though Navalny has provided evidence linking Peskov’s friends and family to the yacht, he has so far not shown proof of Peskov himself being there. Instead, Navalny wrote it is “impossible to imagine that Peskov’s 15-year-old stepdaughter and the 49-year-old Mitvol are spending time together by themselves.”

In response to the new allegations, Peskov has already gone on the defensive, telling the Russian newspaper RBK on Monday that he is currently in Sicily and has not rented the yacht. “I’m renting a hotel,” he reportedly said.

After wedding photographs circulating on social media showed Peskov kissing his bride while wearing a watch estimated to cost more than $600,000 , Navalny jumped on the corruption scandal. Peskov denied the allegations and said that the watch was a wedding present from his wife. However, Navalny then published a photo from three months before the wedding from Peskov’s daughter’s Instagram account showing the Kremlin official wearing the exact same watch.

Photo credit: MAXIM SHIPENKOV/AFP/Getty Images

Reid Standish is an Alfa fellow and  Foreign Policy ’s special correspondent covering Russia and Eurasia. He was formerly an associate editor. Twitter:  @reidstan

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U.S. Department of the Treasury

Treasury sanctions kremlin elites, leaders, oligarchs, and family for enabling putin’s war against ukraine.

Additional Guidance Issued to Prevent Sanctions Evasion and Implement New Executive Order

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a new round of sanctions targeting Russian and Kremlin elites, oligarchs, and Russia’s political and national security leaders who have supported Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Today’s actions include designating regime elites and business executives who are associates and facilitators of the Russian regime, including three immediate family members of President Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitriy Sergeevich Peskov; Russian tycoon and Kremlin insider Viktor Vekselberg; and the Management Board of the sanctioned VTB Bank. Additionally, OFAC designated 12 members of the Russian State Duma, including Vyacheslav Victorovich Volodin, who is also a permanent member of Russia’s Security Council.

OFAC is also issuing guidance, in line with today’s G7 leaders statement , to guard against potential attempts to use virtual currency to evade U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia. All of these actions complement a new Executive Order issued today by President Biden that imposes new import and export restrictions on Russia, including the export of U.S. banknotes to Russia. Finally, OFAC is also issuing guidance and authorizations to implement the President’s new Executive Order.

“Treasury continues to hold Russian officials to account for enabling Putin’s unjustified and unprovoked war,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. “Today’s actions also further isolates the severely damaged Russian economy by prohibiting trade in products that are key to the economic and financial interests of all Russian elites.”

TARGETING PUTIN ENABLERS AND ELITES

Family of dmitriy peskov, kremlin spokesman.

On March 3, 2022, the U.S. State Department designated Dmitriy Sergeevich Peskov (Peskov) , identified as the lead propagandist and spokesperson of the Russian Federation. Peskov was designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14024 for being or having been an official of the Government of the Russian Federation (GoR). Australia, Canada, and the European Union (EU) have also sanctioned Peskov.

Today, OFAC is designating three of Peskov’s family members, all of whom live luxurious lifestyles that are incongruous with Peskov’s civil servant salary and are likely built on the ill-gotten wealth of Peskov’s connections to Putin.

Peskov’s wife, Tatiana Aleksandrovna Navka (Navka) , has a property empire worth more than $10 million. Her real estate includes property in an elite Moscow suburb where Putin also lives, another multimillion-dollar apartment in Moscow given to her by the GoR, and an apartment in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, which Russia has occupied since 2014. She first gained notoriety when she won a gold medal in ice dancing representing Russia at the 2006 Winter Olympics and later hosted an ice dancing show on Russia’s state-owned pro-Kremlin Channel One.

Treasury also designated Peskov’s two adult children, Nikolay Peskov (Nikolay) and Elizaveta Dmitriyevna Peskova (Liza) . Nikolay grew up in the United Kingdom but moved back to Russia to serve in the army, and later worked for the Russian propaganda outlet RT. Nikolay reportedly has access to a number of luxury vehicles and travels on private aircraft and yachts. Liza has tens of thousands of followers on social media, where she displays her luxurious lifestyle. She previously interned for a member of the European Parliament who publicly supported Russia’s attempted annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.

Navka, Nikolay, and Liza are all being designated today pursuant to E.O. 14024 for being a spouse or adult child of Peskov, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 14024.

A Network Close to the Kremlin

Viktor Feliksovich Vekselberg (Vekselberg) is a prominent Russian businessman with an estimated net worth exceeding $6 billion who was previously designated on April 6, 2018 pursuant to E.O. 13662 for operating in the energy sector of the Russian Federation economy. Vekselberg’s extensive holdings, predominantly consolidated through his designated Renova Group of companies, span multiple sectors of the Russian Federation economy, and are intertwined with some of the GoR’s global initiatives, such as the Rusnano Group, one of the largest technological investors in Russia which provides a revenue source to the GoR.

Vekselberg has maintained close ties with leading GoR officials, including Putin and former Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev (Medvedev). Medvedev personally appointed Vekselberg to serve as director and president of the Skolkovo Foundation (SF), a GoR initiative aimed at creating a Russian version of Silicon Valley in order to elevate Russia’s international status as a leading innovation center for technological developments. Following his prior designation, Vekselberg no longer holds this position with SF. Furthermore, Vekselberg has taken part in Russian diplomatic and soft power activities on behalf of the Kremlin, accompanying GoR officials on cultural missions abroad.

As part of today’s action, OFAC is identifying as blocked property two of Vekselberg’s luxury assets: an aircraft with tail number P4-MIS and a yacht titled Tango . P4-MIS is an Airbus A319-115 with serial number 3133 registered in Aruba. Vekselberg’s yacht, Tango, is flagged in the Cook Islands, a self-governing island country in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand, with IMO number 1010703, and gross registered tonnage of 2,083. Both P4-MIS and Tango are valued at approximately $90 million each for a total of $180 million in identified blocked property.

Vekselberg’s P4-MIS jet, valued at approximately $90 million. 1

Vekselberg is being redesignated pursuant to E.O. 14024 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the GoR, and also for operating or having operated in the technology sector of the Russian Federation economy.

VTB Bank’s Management Board

On February 24, 2022, Treasury designated VTB Bank, Russia’s second largest bank, pursuant to E.O. 14024 for being owned or controlled by, or for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the GoR, and for operating or having operated in the financial services sector of the Russian Federation economy. Today, OFAC is designating the ten individuals comprising VTB Bank’s management board.

• Olga Konstantinovna Dergunova
• Vadim Valerievich Kulik
• Valerii Vasilyevich Lukyanenko
• Anatolii Yuryevich Pechatnikov
• Natalia Germanovna Dirks
• Maxim Dmitrievich Kondratenko
• Erkin Rakhmatovich Norov
• Svyatoslav Evgenievich Ostrovsky
• Dmitrii Vasilyevich Pyanov
• Yuriy Nikolaevich Andresov

All ten individuals were designated pursuant to E.O 14024 for being or having been leaders, officials, senior executive officers, or members of the board of directors of the GoR and for operating or having operated in the financial services sector of the Russian Federation economy.

Vyacheslav Volodin and Members of the Russian State Duma

Today, in alignment with measures taken by international partners, OFAC designated twelve members of the Duma. The Duma is one of two chambers of the Russian Federal Assembly, Russia’s legislature. Following months of Russia’s buildup of military forces on the Ukrainian border, in February 2022, the Duma voted in favor of sending a resolution to Putin to recognize the independence of two separatist-held territories in eastern Ukraine, the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR), which was a blatant violation of Ukrainian sovereignty.

Specifically, 11 members of the Duma signed a letter to the Duma’s speaker and member of the pro-Kremlin ruling United Russia Party, Vyacheslav Victorovich Volodin (Volodin) , lobbying for Putin’s recognition of these two separatist republics. Volodin is a permanent member of the Russian Security Council and was previously designated on April 28, 2014, pursuant to E.O. 13661 for being an official of the GoR. Volodin signed the resolution and Putin ultimately announced his decision to recognize the independence of the so-called DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine. Shortly thereafter, Putin falsely accused Ukraine of committing genocide against Russian nationals and sent so-called peacekeepers into the DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine, constituting a wholesale rejection of the Minsk Agreements by the GoR. The United States, in coordination with partners and allies, imposed an embargo on the DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine as a result.

Today’s designations further hold to account those actors who were directly responsible for Russia’s illegitimate and unlawful recognition of the DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine and facilitating the sham pretext used by Putin to justify the Russian Federation’s unprovoked war against Ukraine. The eleven additional members of the Duma designated today consist of:

• Yuriy Vyacheslavovich Afonin
• Yevgeniy Ivanovich Bessonov
• Leonid Ivanovich Kalashnikov
• Vladimir Ivanovich Kashin
• Nikolay Vasilievich Kolomeitsev
• Aleksey Vladimirovich Kurinniy
• Ivan Ivanovich Melnikov
• Dmitriy Georgievich Novikov
• Nikolay Ivanovich Osadchiy
• Kazbek Kutsukovich Taysaev
• Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov

Volodin and the eleven additional Duma members were designated pursuant to E.O. 14024 for being or having been leaders, officials, senior executive officers, or members of the board of directors of the GoR. Each of these individuals were previously designated by the European Union and Canada. Volodin, Kalashnikov, and Melnikov were also previously designated by the United Kingdom.

SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS

As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the individuals above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. All transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or blocked persons are prohibited unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt. These prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person and the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.

SUPPORTING THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE

Today, OFAC issued Ukraine-related General License (GL) 23, pursuant to E.O. 14065, to authorize certain transactions that are ordinarily incident and necessary to nongovernmental organizations’ activities in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) or Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) regions of Ukraine, including activities related to humanitarian projects to meet basic human needs, democracy building, education, non-commercial developments projects, and environmental and natural resource protection. 

OFAC’s issuance of GL 23 is the latest in a series of Ukraine-related general licenses that authorize U.S. persons to support certain humanitarian efforts and other activity in the DNR and LNR regions of Ukraine, including transactions related to the export of agricultural commodities or medicine, the response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the official business of international organizations and entities, as well as personal remittances, telecommunications, internet services, and mail.

FUTHER GUIDANCE TO THWART SANCTIONS EVASION

Today, OFAC also issued new public guidance to further cut off avenues for potential sanctions evasion by Russia, in support of the G7 leaders’ commitment to maintain the effectiveness of economic measures. This guidance continues to make clear that Treasury’s expansive sanctions actions against Russia require all U.S. persons to comply with OFAC regulations, regardless of whether a transaction is denominated in traditional fiat currency or virtual currency. Sanctioned Russian persons are known to employ a wide variety of measures in their efforts to evade U.S. and international sanctions. As such, U.S. persons, wherever located, including firms that process virtual currency transactions, must be vigilant against attempts to circumvent OFAC regulations and must take risk-based steps to ensure they do not engage in prohibited transactions. OFAC is closely monitoring any efforts to circumvent or violate Russia-related sanctions, including through the use of virtual currency, and is committed to using its broad enforcement authorities to act against violations and to promote compliance.

This guidance follows a recent alert from Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), advising all financial institutions to be vigilant against potential efforts to evade the sanctions and restrictions on Russia. The alert provides examples of red flags to assist in identifying suspected sanctions evasion activity and reminds financial institutions of their reporting obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act.

IMPLEMENTING THE EXPANSIVE NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER

Today President Biden issued the E.O. of March 11, 2022 to ban further imports and exports related to Russia, consistent with commitments made by the G7 leaders to deny Russia export revenues and to ensure that our citizens are not underwriting Putin’s war.

Among other things, this E.O. prohibits the importation into the United States of the following products of Russian Federation origin: fish, seafood, and preparations thereof; alcoholic beverages; and non-industrial diamonds. In addition, this E.O. bans the exportation, reexportation, sale, or supply, directly or indirectly, from the United States, or by a U.S. person, wherever located, of U.S. dollar-denominated banknotes to the GoR or to any person located in the Russian Federation.

Pursuant to the Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Regulations, which implement the E.O. of March 11, 2022, OFAC issued Russia-related GL 17 to authorize the import of existing purchases of prohibited products that are under pre-existing contract. OFAC also issued Russia-related GLs 18 and 19 to authorize certain activities regarding U.S. dollar-denominated banknotes as they pertain to personal remittances and U.S. persons, respectively.

For identifying information on the individuals and entities designated today, as well as new General Licenses and FAQs, click here .

1  Anna Zvereva from Tallinn, Estonia, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Peskov reacted to Navalny's publication about the lease of a yacht for 26 million rubles.

• Dmitry Peskov
• Alexey Navalny
• Tatiana Navka
• Russian President Administration
• Anti-Corruption Fund

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France to work on new UN Gaza ceasefire resolution, Macron says

France will work with Jordan and the United Arab Emirates to convince Russia and China to back a resolution at the United Nations for a ceasefire in Gaza after the two big powers blocked a text by the U.S., President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.

Dmitry Peskov’s Mysterious Wealth

Peskov’s Honeymoon Yacht

On December 22, 2017, President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov called “libel” the statement by the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) (created by Alexei Navalny , the charismatic leader of the Russian opposition Progress Party) that Peskov bought his former wife Ekaterina Solotsinskaya an apartment for 1.77 million euros. “It is claimed that I bought an apartment in Paris, which is not true, this is slander,” Peskov said.

The previous day the FBK YouTube channel announced in a video that in September 2016 Solotsinskaya together with her daughter Elizaveta Peskova bought an apartment on the avenue Victor Hugo in the prestigious 16th district of Paris. According to the French records, the owner of an apartment of 180 square meters is the French legal entity SIRIUS, three quarters owned by Ekaterina Solotsinskaya and another quarter by Elizaveta Peskova.

1.3 million euros of the total cost of the apartment was paid in cash, and the remaining 470 thousand euros was paid by a mortgage loan. The loan was provided by the French branch of VTB Bank at a rate of 2.7 percent per annum.

From the contract for the apartment it follows that the purchase by Peskov’s former family was carried out with their own money, but according to the declared income, the family did not have these funds. The FBK concludes that the money for the Paris property was obtained through corruption.

This is not the first time the FBK has investigated the president’s press secretary. On August 2, 2015, Navalny wrote in his blog that in wedding photos Peskov had a Richard Mille RM 52-01 watch on his wrist. Navalny corresponded with the seller of the watch, and found out that this series was released in a limited edition of 30 items and each watch cost 620 thousand dollars.

Peskov said that the watch was presented to him by his wife, figure skater Tatyana Navka. “Indeed, watches are very expensive, but they are significantly cheaper than some comrades point out,” he explained.

On August 17, 2015 Navalny published a message in his blog saying that Peskov held a honeymoon with Navka, and a small circle of friends and children, on a rented yacht “Maltese Falcon” off the coast of Sardinia. According to FBK, the “Maltese Falcon” yacht rental costs 385,000 euros a week. “And this cost does not include the cost of food and entertainment. Dmitry Peskov would have had to pay his salary in full for three years to allow only seven days on this yacht,” Navalny wrote. “In connection with the information received, the Anti-Corruption Fund corruption demands from the civil servant Peskov explanations about who paid the rent of the yacht or — if he paid it himself — where the money came from.”

A week later Navalny accused Peskov of taking a bribe from Ziya Magomedov, the owner of the Summa group of companies. In his blog, Navalny published the results of the investigation, according to which Magomedov paid for the rent of the yacht “Maltese Falcon.”

In September 2015, FBK reported that at the beginning of the year Navka purchased a house in Moscow worth $7 million. Navalny sent a request to check Peskov for “corruption and matching expenses to official revenues” to the Investigative Committee and the FSB.

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Russia: Navalny trains spotlight on lifestyle of Putin spokesman's son

Anti-corruption campaigner’s claims about Dmitry Peskov’s son are latest salvo in fight against high lives of Russian elite

In 2010, Nikolay Choles was a troubled British youth, jailed for assaulting a man outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Milton Keynes.

By 2017, according to the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny , Choles had become a fixture on the Moscow social circuit, driving Ferraris and travelling first-class or by private jet.

The transformation, Navalny says, is due to Choles’ parentage – he is the son of President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov.

Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner who wants to stand against Putin in presidential elections next year, released alleged details about Choles’ life in a blogpost on Thursday, his latest salvo against the high lives of the Russian elite.

“Nikolay Choles is an example of how in Russia , where 20 million people live in poverty … you can live wonderfully, while doing absolutely nothing,” he wrote.

Choles moved to Britain with his mother, Peskov’s first wife, during the 1990s and later took the surname of his British stepfather, according to Navalny.

A court transcript obtained by Navalny’s team details a 2010 trial in Huntingdon crown court, in which Choles and two other young men were charged with robbery and causing actual bodily harm to an 18-year-old man in Milton Keynes.

Choles admitted to the court that he had punched the victim in the face. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was “genuinely shocked at his own behaviour”, according to his lawyer, who added that Choles was estranged from his family and had been kicked out of his home at the age of 16.

The sentencing judge described the attack as “mindless violence in a public place at night, in the alleyways of Milton Keynes; a gang attack, three of you set about intimidating this young man and caused him a dreadful injury”.

Choles was already in a young offender institution for stealing a mobile phone, the court heard, and had undergone courses to deal with alcohol problems and anger management.

While many rich Russians in the last two decades have left humble beginnings in Russia to live the lives of millionaires in the west, according to Navalny, Choles went the other way.

The blog reports that by 2012, he had arrived in Moscow and got a job at the Kremlin’s English-language television station, Russia Today. Before long, he disappeared from the channel. It is unclear whether he has been employed since then.

Navalny’s team scoured Choles’s private Instagram account and, as set out in the blogpost, found numerous photographs of Choles in Russia, posing in front of expensive cars and travelling either in first class or on private jets. He is often pictured playing polo, and even has an oil painting of himself with a horse. There are many photographs featuring his father.

Navalny said he had found two Moscow apartments registered in Choles’ name, as well as a Tesla car, which Peskov has been filmed using. Choles has received 116 fines for traffic violations, Navalny said.

While there is no evidence that Choles’ lifestyle is in any way illegal, Navalny said it was indicative of a culture where the children of top officials live pampered lives.

“He doesn’t work anywhere but is buying apartments, Range Rovers, Ferraris, a Tesla car, travels and spends whole days riding horses. We know what his profession is called – the son of a corrupt father,” Navalny wrote.

It is not the first time Navalny has taken aim at Peskov. Previously, he discovered a watch worn by Peskov was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Peskov said it was a wedding present from his wife, Tatiana Navka, a figure skater he married in 2015.

Navalny also alleged Peskov and Navka spent their honeymoon on one of the world’s most expensive yachts, the Maltese Falcon. Peskov denied the allegations.

Peskov has not commented on Navalny’s most recent claims.

Choles called the blogpost a provocation. “This is just a nightmare,” he told the Russian media outlet RBK shortly after its publication. “How else could you consider this? It’s horrible.”

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Russia says talks possible on prisoner swap for detained U.S. reporter

The Associated Press

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, June 22. Dmitry Serebryakov/AP hide caption

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the Moscow City Court in Moscow, Russia, June 22.

MOSCOW — The Kremlin on Tuesday held the door open for contacts with the U.S. regarding a possible prisoner exchange that could potentially involve jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, but reaffirmed that such talks must be held out of the public eye.

Asked whether Monday's consular visits to Gershkovich, who has been held behind bars in Moscow since March on charges of espionage, and Vladimir Dunaev, a Russian citizen in U.S. custody on cybercrime charges, could potentially herald a prisoner swap, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow and Washington have touched on the issue.

"We have said that there have been certain contacts on the subject, but we don't want them to be discussed in public," Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. "They must be carried out and continue in complete silence."

He didn't offer any further details, but added that "the lawful right to consular contacts must be ensured on both sides."

The U.S. Ambassador to Moscow, Lynne Tracy, on Monday was allowed to visit Gershkovich for the first time since April. The U.S. Embassy did not immediately provide more information.

The 31-year-old Gershkovich was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip to Russia. He is being held at Moscow's Lefortovo prison, notorious for its harsh conditions. A Moscow court last week upheld a ruling to keep him in custody until Aug. 30.

Gershkovich and his employer deny the allegations, and the U.S. government declared him to be wrongfully detained. His arrest rattled journalists in Russia where authorities have not provided any evidence to support the espionage charges.

Gershkovich is the first American reporter to face espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB. Daniloff was released 20 days later in a swap for an employee of the Soviet Union's U.N. mission who was arrested by the FBI, also on spying charges.

Dunaev was extradited from South Korea on the U.S. cybercrime charges and is in detention in Ohio. Russian diplomats were granted consular access to him on Monday for the first time since his arrest in 2021, Nadezhda Shumova, the head of the Russian Embassy's consular section, said in remarks carried by the Tass news agency.

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clock This article was published more than  6 years ago

Kremlin says it got the Trump Tower email but didn’t respond

MOSCOW — A spokesman for Russian President Vladi­mir Putin confirmed on Wednesday that he had received a request for assistance on a stalled Trump Tower real estate project in Moscow from a close aide to President Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, but added that the Kremlin did not respond to the letter.

“I confirm that among a number of emails one from Mr. Michael Cohen came to us. This indeed happened,” said Dmitry Peskov, a personal spokesman for Putin, during a telephone briefing with Russian and foreign journalists. “But as far as we don’t respond to business topics, this is not our job, we did not send a response.”

Top Trump Organization executive asked Putin aide for help on business deal

The stalled deal as described to congressional investigators by Cohen, a close aide to Trump since 2007 who now serves as one of his personal lawyers, was for a licensing project between Trump and a Moscow-based developer called I.C. Expert Investment. According to Cohen, Trump signed a letter of intent with the company in October 2015, but added that the project was later abandoned for “business reasons.”

Peskov said that the email described a “Russian company together with certain people [who] had the goal of creating a new skyscraper in Moscow city, but the deal is not moving forward, and they were asking for some recommendations and help advancing this deal.”

Peskov said that he had seen the email but that it was not given to Putin.

The email was sent in mid-January 2016 shortly before the first Republican Party primaries, as Trump stood out on the campaign trail for his warm rhetoric about the Russian president. It is one of a number of contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials that have become the subject of congressional inquiries and an investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III exploring Russian interference in the 2016 election

Trump’s business sought deal on a Trump Tower in Moscow while he ran for president

Cohen has served as a personal lawyer for Trump since January. He did not have a formal role in the campaign,

"Over the past few months I have been working with a company based in Russia regarding the development of a Trump Tower-Moscow project in Moscow City," Cohen wrote to Peskov, according to a person familiar with the email . "Without getting into lengthy specifics, the communication between our two sides has stalled.

“As this project is too important, I am hereby requesting your assistance. I respectfully request someone, preferably you, contact me so that I might discuss the specifics as well as arranging meetings with the appropriate individuals. I thank you in advance for your assistance and look forward to hearing from you soon,” Cohen wrote.

The email was sent to a general inbox used by the Kremlin press service, which Peskov said receives thousands of emails pertaining to courts, law enforcement and business topics that the Kremlin regularly passes on. In a statement to Congress, Cohen said he was encouraged to write to Peskov by Felix Sater, a Russian American businessman who was serving as a broker on the deal.

Peskov, a former diplomat who speaks fluent English and Turkish, is seen as one of several gatekeepers to Putin and regularly travels with him on official trips. He was appointed head of the presidential press service during Putin's first term in 2000, and has served as a spokesman for Putin in various roles since.

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Russia highlights ‘collapse of sanctity of private property’ in the West

The seizure of yachts, planes, and real estate from Russian tycoons is illegal and contradicts the very ideals on which Western society has been built, the Kremlin has said.

Such actions against the businessmen who were sanctioned due to their claimed ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine signal “the collapse of the sanctity of private property and private business [and] demonstrate the danger of doing business there,” Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

Russia’s leading entrepreneurs are actually “international businessmen” as their companies operate around the globe, he pointed out. Yet, they are treated in a manner that “can’t be described in any other way than hijacking at the state level.”

France claimed to have seized a yacht believed to belong to Russia’s state oil giant Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin in early March. Several other countries followed suit and also arrested vessels and other property of the Russian tycoons.

Peskov acknowledged that the issue of sanctions had been raised at the peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, but added that revealing any further details would be “impossible” as the negotiations were still ongoing.

Earlier in the day, Russia’s top negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, announced that “there was some progress on several issues, but not all of them” during the talks.

Ukraine is proposing the adoption of a neutral status similar to Austria or Sweden, but with its own military and navy, Medinsky said, adding that the size of the Ukrainian army has been under discussion.

Moscow attacked its neighbor in late February, following a seven-year standoff over Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk.

The German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc.

Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

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