"Admit your guilt, and you'll immediately go to any doctor." Lerchek filed a complaint against the police officers who prevented her from seeing a doctor.
Thirty-three-year-old blogger Lerchek (real name Valeria Chekalina), diagnosed with stage-four metastatic stomach cancer, has filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee. She is requesting an investigation into the actions of an investigator who, she claims, denied her access to a doctor while under house arrest, RIA Novosti reports.
In her appeal, Chekalina claims that the investigator handling the criminal case obstructed her access to doctors and the necessary medical examinations. According to the blogger, these actions may have been related to attempts to pressure her into confessing.
Lerchek's lawyers have repeatedly petitioned the investigator to allow Valeria to see a doctor—she had been suffering from leg and abdominal pain since last year. Tests, which she was able to obtain without visiting a medical facility, confirmed the presence of an inflammatory process in her body. Valeria herself claims the investigator told her, "Plead guilty, and you'll immediately go to any doctor."
As a reminder, the diagnosis became known shortly after Chekalina gave birth to her fourth son on February 26. The child's father is her current boyfriend, Argentine Luis Squicchiarini, with whom Lerchek danced during her house arrest. Immediately after giving birth, she was admitted to the oncology intensive care unit. Further examination revealed that Lerchek had stage-four stomach cancer with metastases to her lungs, spine, and legs. By that time, several vertebrae had already begun to deteriorate, and she underwent emergency surgery. The blogger was also diagnosed with cranial bone damage and vision loss in her right eye.
Chekalina's condition is currently considered extremely serious. She has fractured two vertebrae, is in severe pain (9-10 on a scale of 1-10), and is unable to move independently. The blogger is undergoing intensive chemotherapy and radiation therapy at a state-run oncology center; the family cannot afford a private clinic due to the freeze on their bank accounts.
The criminal prosecution of Valeria Chekalina and her ex-husband, Artyom, began in March 2023. They were initially accused of tax evasion totaling approximately 300 million rubles and money laundering of over 130 million rubles. In November 2023, the ex-spouses paid approximately 500 million rubles to the Federal Tax Service, after which the tax case was closed.
However, in October 2024, they were charged with new crimes. According to investigators, in 2021–2022, the Chekalins transferred over 250 million rubles, earned from the sale of fitness marathons, abroad using a scheme involving a shell company in the UAE. The court placed both under house arrest. The third defendant was their former business partner, Roman Vishnyak, who entered into a pre-trial agreement and received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. Artyom Chekalin pleaded guilty, while Valeria did not.
On March 16, Moscow's Gagarinsky Court suspended the criminal case against Valeria Chekalina due to her serious illness. The preventive measure was changed from house arrest to a ban on certain activities—effectively, the blogger was released from custody. Her lawyers emphasized that their client's illness is on the list of illnesses that preclude her from serving a prison sentence.
The next day, it became known that Lerchek had fully repaid her tax debt to the Federal Tax Service—175 million rubles. The funds were transferred to her account by an individual whose identity her lawyers refused to disclose. Internet users named Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov as the leading candidates for the anonymous benefactor.
Photo: im__lu_, lerchekfamily_life/Instagram* *
