MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov heaped praise on the Russian Defense Ministry and Russia’s Wagner private military company who are fighting for their homeland and dismissed media-fueled rumors of strife between Wagner’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and the military agency.

"We think that mostly this conflict exists, naturally, in the media landscape," the Kremlin official said. "They all are involved in the common cause. They all are fighting for their Motherland," he stressed.

According to Putin’s press secretary, "the country should know and does know its heroes." He particularly stressed that this concerns both the heroes serving in Russia’s Armed Forces displaying miracles of courage and the heroes from the Wagner PMC. "All of them will forever be in our memory," he noted.

Speaking of the alleged strife between the leadership of the Defense Ministry and Wagner, Peskov noted that this is "mainly the product of all these information-driven manipulations." He added that it’s one thing when they are "sometimes created by our information adversaries," but "sometimes our own friends act in such a way that you don’t need any enemies." "It is necessary to treat this calmly," he urged.