In 1990, Peskov was appointed to the Soviet Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, as an administrative assistant. He subsequently filled the positions of attaché and then third secretary at the embassy. In 1994, he was assigned to work in the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow. After two years there, he was posted back to Ankara in 1996 with the diplomatic rank of second, and then first secretary at the Russian Embassy. In 2000, Peskov returned to Russia to work at the press service of the Russian President, serving in a number of positions, including a four-year term as First Deputy Press Secretary of the Russian President, from 2004 to 2008. Peskov has served as Putin's spokesperson since April 2000. Peskov was named as Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov's Press Secretary on 25 April 2008, putting him in place to lead Vladimir Putin's press operations when he moved to the job of Prime Minister under Dmitry Medvedev's presidency. In May 2012, when Putin again became President, Peskov succeeded Natalya Timakova as the presidential spokesperson.
Contact with Trump aide
In January 2016, Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, sent an e-mail to Dmitry Peskov asking for help with a business deal in Moscow. The Washington Post called this the "most direct outreach documented by a top Trump aide to a similarly senior member of Putin’s government." After initial difficulties in addressing the email Peskov's office replied by email and telephone. Cohen denied this response when testifying to Congress but later admitted that he had lied, and the Moscow project had continued until at least June 2016.
Personal life
In July 2015, Peskov became engaged to the Olympic Champion ice dancerTatiana Navka, with whom he has a daughter. They married on 1 August 2015, after Peskov finalized the divorce with his second wife. During the wedding, Peskov was photographed wearing an exclusive US$670,000 Richard Mille watch, greater than Peskov's declared income for all his years of service as a state employee. When this fact was discovered, this caused a media reaction, and Peskov replied that Navka had paid for the watch. Russian anticorruption crusader Aleksei Navalny said on 17 August that Peskov vacationed recently with his new wife off the coast of the Italian island of Sardinia on a 350,000-euro-per-week yacht called the Maltese Falcon. Navalny cited data from yacht-tracking websites and social-media posts as evidence partially corroborating his source's claims, though he presented no direct proof that Peskov had set foot on the vessel. Aside from Peskov's native Russian language, he also is fluent in English, Turkish and Arabic. His daughter, Elizaveta Peskova, is an assistant to far-right Aymeric Chauprade, a French Member of the European Parliament. On 12 May 2020, Peskov was sent to the hospital after testing positive for COVID-19. He recovered and was discharged on 25 May.
