Peskov was born on 3 February 1990 in
Moscow. He is the eldest son of
Dmitry Peskov and Anastasia Budyonny. He is a great-grandson of
Semyon Budyonny. He moved with his mother to the United Kingdom in the 1990s. Peskov sometimes uses his stepfather's surname, Choles. He briefly worked as a correspondent for
RT. Peskov responded on
RBK that Navalny's report was "a provocation." though a conflicting report shows that when he claimed to be in Ukraine, his Tesla car (which he is the primary driver of) had been seen moving "actively" around Moscow. During this time the car has collected fines as well. The
VChK-OGPU Telegram channel also asked Wagner artillerymen if they had seen him, replying: "he was nowhere to be seen in the Bakhmut area." Nikolai Peskov also claimed that he wanted to join Wagner but didn't know how "so I had to turn to my dad...and he helped me with that". Wagner chief
Yevgeny Prigozhin said that
Dmitry Peskov asked him to "take [Nikolai] on as a simple artilleryman". In September 2022, regarding the
2022 Russian mobilization, Russian journalist Dmitry Nizovtsev, an associate of opposition activist
Alexei Navalny, called Nikolay Peskov and pretended to be a military recruitment officer. He asked Mr Peskov why he hadn't shown up to the Moscow call up centre. Mr Peskov replied: "I am Mr Peskov. I'm going to take this matter to another level...I basically need to know what's going on and what my rights are." This call was made live on YouTube. ==Personal life==