Night Wolves turned against Putin's Press Secretary
The Moscow-based daily newspaper Moskovskiy Komsomolets reported that the leader of the Ural biker’s organization "Night Wolves," Mikhail Kaigorodov, advised Russian President Putin’s Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov, to make sure that all members of Peskov’s family returned home and that their American citizenship was dealt with.
These comments were made in response to Peskov’s recent criticism of Alexander “The Surgeon” Zaldostanov, to whom Kaigorodov reports directly.
The conflict between Peskov and The Surgeon started after the latter openly criticized the artistic director of Satyricon Theater, Konstantin Raikin. In response to Raikin’s speech on increasing censorship in Russian culture, Zaldostanov said that "people like Raikin want to turn the country into a gutter."
Peskov then criticized Zaldostanov for those remarks, stating that “the devil made him do it” and that he expected The Surgeon to apologize to the director soon. However, Zaldostanov refused to apologize, saying only that he respects Raikin. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov also spoke out in defense of Zaldostanov, noting that the biker’s position is shared by “millions of Russians.”
As a result, Kaigorodov advised that before lecturing the leader of the patriotic movement of Russia, Peskov ought to bring all his family members home to Russia, following the direct order of the President, and then take care of changing the American citizenship of the close relatives. Only then, Kaigorodov said, would it be possible to hold discussions with Peskov. "Prior to this, it makes no sense," the biker said.
Peskov’s wife, Tatiana Navka, holds dual Russian and U.S. citizenship. His daughter, Elizaveta, currently lives in France.