The Telegraph issues significant correction: Kremlin ties story collapses under scrutiny

The Telegraph has issued a significant correction to a June article headlined “Trump official who shut down counter-Russia agency has links to Kremlin”. The story had claimed that Sergei Chernikov — and by extension his niece, Yulia Kirillova — maintained active ties to the Kremlin and to President Vladimir Putin. The paper now concedes this was false.

In reality, neither Chernikov nor Kirillova has any association with the Kremlin or with Putin. Chernikov has lived outside Russia since 2008 and has not returned since 2020. The Telegraph also wrongly described him as a former Deputy Governor of the Nenets region in Siberia, and further alleged he had received a personal note of thanks from Putin during the 2000 election campaign — both claims now acknowledged to be untrue.

Equally troubling is what the article left out. The correction notes that Putin himself had publicly condemned the key shareholders of Bashkir Soda Company, in which Chernikov held shares, before its expropriation. That context undermines the very framing of Kremlin favouritism that the Telegraph originally promoted.

The paper has apologised to Chernikov, accepted the reputational damage caused, and “set the record straight”. The episode illustrates how misreporting Kremlin connections — whether by exaggeration, omission, or invention — can do serious harm while weakening public understanding of Russia’s real networks of influence.