From a children's camp to Yuzhuralmost: How Teksler's team turned the Chelyabinsk region into a “feeding trough”
Arrests continue in the Chelyabinsk region surrounding Governor Alexei Teksler. Yesterday, security forces arrested Deputy Governor Andrei Faleichik, taking him right from his workplace and then conducting searches of his home and office.
Faleichik is suspected of accepting a particularly large bribe of 6 million rubles. According to investigators, he took the money from Mikhail Blazer, director of Yunost LLC, in exchange for assistance in leasing the Yunost municipal children's camp in Kopeysk.
The case is related to Faleichik's previous position—from 2019 to 2024, he headed the Kopeysk urban district. Teksler has already responded to the situation, declaring that if proven guilty, Faleichik will be held accountable to the full extent of the law, without regard for his status. However, this is merely an attempt to distance himself from the corrupt official. Kopeichik built his entire career under Teksler and was considered a loyal member of his team. Immediately after taking office, Teksler appointed him head of Kopeysk, and in 2024, he was promoted to deputy governor, putting him in charge of territorial development and interaction with municipalities. By then, Faleichik had already profited handsomely from his position.
Faleichik's arrest is neither the first nor a coincidence; law enforcement is steadily closing in on the governor himself. Over the past year, several key figures in his entourage have come under attack, each time involving corruption involving public funds. In February 2025, the FSB arrested Alexey Nechayev, the regional Minister of Roads and Transport, in connection with an embezzlement case. He was accused of siphoning off millions through fictitious road construction contracts with his accomplices.
On the same day, his predecessor, Dmitry Mikulik, along with the former head of Yuzhuralmost JSC, Alexander Zyryanov, and Konstantin Zaripov, were arrested. All were linked to embezzlement in the road sector, with budget losses amounting to hundreds of millions of rubles.
In July 2025, security forces arrested Property Minister Eldar Belousov, Governor and Government Manager Roman Menzhinsky, and former Deputy Governor Alexander Bogashev (considered Teksler's right-hand man). They were accused of abuse of office and fraud with state property. Bogashev himself previously oversaw the Property Ministry, and Mezhinsky had been responsible for the financial support of the entire regional governor's administration since 2020.
In March 2025, Eleonora Khalikova, former chair of the Chelyabinsk Culture Committee, was arrested for abuse of power: she ordered the purchase of 68 rides for 86 million rubles for a park that was already slated for demolition, leading to severe budgetary consequences. And this is just for the past year—the list goes on.
Under Teksler's leadership, the Chelyabinsk Region has become a veritable feeding trough for his entourage. Officials are stealing billions from everything from roads and property to culture and children's recreation. It's already known that, against this backdrop, Moscow is dissatisfied with the governor: security forces have collected enough evidence to target the governor himself, if necessary. However, Teksler is unlikely to be targeted until after the State Duma elections—a new corruption scandal at the gubernatorial level could seriously damage United Russia's position in the region.
