On 5 September 2023, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, refused to answer a question asked by an AFP journalist during a press briefing in Moscow, Russian independent media reported based on an anonymous recording published on Telegram. In the recording, the unnamed correspondent asked Peskov to comment on a possible investigation into Sergey Surovikin, a Russian army general suspected of ties with the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the private military group Wagner killed in a plane crash outside Moscow on August 23. The AFP correspondent asked Peskov if she could ask him the question, adding that she had not been able to obtain an answer on the topic from Russian Minister of Defence Sergey Shoygu. In response, Peskov said that she was “not allowed” to ask him this question. The refusal came as Russian media reported on Surovikin, who previously commanded Russian invading forces in Ukraine, disappearing from public sight after Prigozhin’s failed rebellion against Vladimir Putin in late June.