A friend of Putin’s head of security with a criminal past helped secure a pardon for a Russian blogger – media
Kyiv • UNN
Businessman Umar Kremlyov helped secure a pardon for blogger Lerchek, who was convicted of currency transactions. Putin revoked her punishment.
Russian businessman Umar Kremlyov, who is linked to Vladimir Putin’s head of security and the family of U.S. President Donald Trump, helped secure a pardon for blogger Valeria Chekalina, known as Lerchek. She was previously convicted of illegal currency transactions. The Moscow Times reports this, citing the blogger’s lawyer, Ekaterina Gordon, UNN writes.
Details
According to the lawyer, several influential figures were involved in the pardon process, including employees of the Russian president’s administration and his press secretary, Dmitry Peskov.
Umar Kremlyov helped Valeria. I don’t know exactly what ultimately worked. I think it was everything together
As a result, Putin signed a decree pardoning Chekalina, releasing her from a five-year suspended sentence and a fine of 763 million rubles. The grounds cited for the pardon were that the blogger had several children and an oncological disease.
What is known about the businessman
According to The Moscow Times, Kremlyov, who went by the surname Lutfullaev until 2010, was convicted twice in the 2000s for extortion and assault. He later established ties with representatives of the Russian authorities and became an influential player in the gambling market.
In September 2026, the businessman attracted international attention after attending the wedding of Donald Trump Jr. in the Bahamas. According to media reports, he paid for the rental of a private island and other expenses amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The U.S. president later said that his son had repaid the money.
At the same time, open sources contain no confirmation of personal or business ties between Kremlyov and Chekalina.
The blogger’s former husband, Artem Chekalin, also became a defendant in a criminal case. In April 2026, he was sentenced to seven years in prison, and he continues to serve his sentence.