Vladimir Putin has signed a decree pardoning blogger Valeria Chekalina, known under the pseudonym Lerchek. The document entered into force on November 14, 2026. The president released Chekalina from her sentence handed down by the Gagarinsky District Court of Moscow and cleared her criminal record, citing principles of humanity. The decision was made against the backdrop of the convicted person's severe illness.
The Verdict and Substance of the Charges
In October 2024, Chekalina and her then-husband Artem became defendants in a case involving illegal currency transactions. According to the prosecution, the couple used forged documents to transfer more than 250 million rubles obtained from the sale of fitness marathons to the UAE. The blogger herself did not plead guilty. On July 31, 2026, the Gagarinsky Court sentenced her to five years of probation and imposed a fine of 764 million rubles. During the trial, the prosecutor had demanded six years of probation and a fine of 1.2 billion rubles.
The Case of the Ex-Husband
The blogger's former husband, Artem Chechalin, was sentenced to seven years in prison in April 2026 in a tax evasion case. Thus, the two defendants in the initial case received different punishments: Chekalina received a suspended sentence followed by a pardon, while her former spouse received a real prison term in a colony.
Health and Pardon Request
On November 12, Valeria Chekalina's lawyer reported that she had appealed to the president with a request for a pardon. The blogger was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer, after which her case materials were separated into distinct proceedings. The defense sought permission to travel to China for medical treatment. The state of health became the key argument in making the decision on the pardon.
Business Empire and Tax Disputes
Valeria Chekalina engaged in selling online weight loss and business courses. In 2020, she ranked seventh on the Forbes list of Russia's highest-paid social media bloggers with an annual income of $600,000. In March 2023, she was charged with tax evasion amounting to 311 million rubles; in May, the couple paid off the main debt, and along with penalties and fines, paid 504 million rubles. In December of the same year, the investigation dropped the tax case. Before the sentencing in the summer of 2026, Chekalina asked not to be given a fine, citing a lack of funds to pay it.
Chekalina's pardon became the culmination of a multi-year trial that intertwined charges of currency operations, tax disputes, and, ultimately, the severe illness of the convicted person. The president's decree effectively ended her criminal prosecution, clearing her criminal record and releasing her from the assigned punishment.
