# Dmitry Peskov Press secretary and spokesman for [[Vladimir Putin]], serving since 2012. Peskov is the Kremlin official whose office was directly contacted by [[Michael Cohen]] in January 2016 regarding the [[Trump Tower Moscow]] deal — establishing a documented communication link between Trump's personal attorney and Putin's inner circle during the presidential campaign. ## The Cohen Contact In January 2016, while Trump was actively campaigning for the Republican nomination, Cohen emailed Peskov's office seeking assistance with the [[Trump Tower Moscow]] project. Cohen reached Peskov's personal assistant, who responded and spoke with Cohen by phone for approximately 20 minutes. This contact is significant because it established that: - The [[Trump Organization]] was directly reaching out to the Kremlin for business assistance during the campaign - The outreach went to Putin's most senior communications official — not a mid-level bureaucrat - Trump was telling voters he had "no deals in [[Russia]]" at the same time his attorney was contacting Putin's spokesman about a Moscow real estate project Peskov publicly acknowledged the contact but said Cohen's email was not passed on to Putin and that no action was taken. Cohen's congressional testimony and the [[Mueller Investigation]] established the contact as fact. ## Role in the Broader Record Peskov serves as the Kremlin's official voice on all Trump-Russia matters, consistently denying interference, dismissing investigations, and characterizing US scrutiny as anti-Russian hysteria. His denials are part of the official Russian position, which is that the 2016 interference documented by Mueller, the [[Intelligence Community Hub]] Assessment, and the [[Senate Intelligence Committee]] simply didn't happen. ## Significance Peskov's office is the highest documented point of contact between the Trump Organization and the Kremlin during the 2016 campaign. The Cohen-Peskov communication is not alleged or inferred — it is acknowledged by both sides. It represents the Trump Tower Moscow project's most direct link to Putin's inner circle and contradicts the public narrative Trump maintained throughout the campaign that he had no Russian business dealings.