Mr Peskov's admission came during an interview with an online TV station that was interpreted as an attempt to reassure middle class voters in Moscow and St. Petersburg that their concerns would be heeded by Mr Putin. In the same interview, Mr Peskov denied claims that Mr Putin was in danger of turning into the late Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev who came to be associated with stagnation, arguing that Brezhnev was on the whole a force for good for the USSR in any case.