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A relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin accidentally revealed a confidential figure that gives a possible official insight into the extent of Russia’s war dead in Ukraine.
Video published by the independent Astra Telegram channel on Tuesday showed Anna Tsivilyova, the reported daughter of Putin’s cousin and a deputy defence minister, saying that the government had received tens of thousands of appeals from relatives related to the tracking and identification of missing soldiers through DNA samples.
“The Ministry of Internal Affairs takes [DNA] absolutely free of charge at their own expense, and enters into its database all the relatives who have applied to us. I’ve already said 48,000,” Tsivilyova said at a meeting with lawmakers in the video.
Moments later, defence committee chief Andrei Kartapolov asked her not to disclose this number.
“Anna Yevgenyevna [Tsivilyova] has mentioned figures here, including missing persons. I earnestly ask you not to use these figures anywhere. This is such sensitive, closed information. And when we draw up the final documents, we should not include these figures anywhere,” he said.
Tsivilyova responded: “I didn’t mention the numbers of the missing, but of the appeals to us [by relatives].”
