the husband of the richest woman in russia led people to break into the company and a gunfight broke out. the political and business interest groups behind it are not simple.
2024-09-21
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according to a report by the global times on september 19, citing tass, a gunfight broke out at the headquarters of russian e-commerce giant wildberries in central moscow on the 18th. so far, two people have been confirmed dead and seven injured.
tatiana bakalchuk, the founder of wildberry and the richest woman in russia, said that her estranged husband vladislav bakalchuk and armed men tried to occupy the company's headquarters office building. but vladislav himself disagreed with the above accusation, saying that he came to negotiate with the company's current management, and wildberry staff shot at him and his security team for no reason.
on september 18, 2024, local time, in moscow, russia, a policeman stood guard outside the security fence at the entrance of the wildberry company's office building.
according to russian media reports, the shooting took place only about half a kilometer away from the kremlin. at present, the russian federal investigation committee has launched an investigation into 33 people including vladislav, who has been charged with two counts of murder, attempted murder of a police officer, and wanton behavior.
tatiana founded wild berry in 2004. after running the company together for 20 years, why did a conflict arise between her and vladislav, leading to an inspirational entrepreneurial story ending in a bloody shooting?
merger turmoil
tatiana was born in 1975 in an ordinary korean family in russia. in 2004, she quit her job as an english teacher and founded wildberry, sensing the huge potential of e-commerce. her husband vladislav also quit his job in the it industry and ran the company with his wife. after 20 years of development, wildberry has become a russian e-commerce giant, often compared with amazon. in 2024, tatiana herself ranked 22nd on the forbes russian billionaires list with a fortune of us$7.4 billion (approximately rmb 52.15 billion).
police stand guard outside the office building of wild berry company in moscow, russia, on september 18, 2024, local time.
however, tatiana left her husband in april this year and filed for divorce in july. prior to this, wildberry had just announced in june that it would merge with outdoor advertising operator russ outdoor. it is generally believed that it was this merger that triggered the conflict between the couple that lasted for several months. tatiana supported the merger plan and believed that it was a viable way to further develop wildberry's business, but vladislav publicly opposed the deal, believing that tatiana was "deceived" and that "there was no merger deal at all."
according to forbes magazine, in the months after the merger, public documents showed that wildberry transferred all of its valuable assets into the joint venture it formed with russ. in july, wildberry transferred 27 of its 30 subsidiaries to the new company, rwb llc, and the remaining three subsidiaries did not appear to contain any significant business. at the same time, russ did not transfer any shares, but received a 35% stake in the new enterprise, and wildberry received the remaining 65%. it is reported that tatiana actually sold 35% of wildberry's shares, worth about $3.4 billion. according to forbes magazine, tatiana's net worth has dropped from $7.4 billion in july to $4.1 billion.
vladislav directed his accusations at the mirzoyan brothers, the current shareholders of russ, saying "they threatened (tatiana) that the oligarchs would take everything from her and that big companies like wildberry would now be handed over to the state". vladislav also said that since he and tatiana did not sign a prenuptial agreement, he would be entitled to half of wildberry's shares after the divorce. before the merger, vladislav held 1% of wildberry's shares.
is this merger "very strange"?
before the shooting, some independent russian business media considered the merger "very strange" and that it might be part of a redistribution of russian wartime assets that would pay off for business people with ties to the kremlin. according to their analysis, wildberry and russ have little in common and are very different in size. compared to wildberry's $2.7 billion in revenue in 2023, russ only had about $300 million in revenue last year. however, russ appears to have some "influential shareholders."
another piece of news that has attracted widespread attention is that russian president vladimir putin reportedly personally approved the merger. according to multiple media reports, tatiana and robert mirzoyan, head of russ, wrote to putin before the merger, asking him to approve the deal. they outlined the plans for the new company, including building a platform that can compete with amazon, alibaba and others, and hoping to build a platform similar to the international funds clearing system (swift). after the outbreak of the russian-ukrainian conflict, russia was removed from the payment system.
in response to outside rumors in july, russian presidential press secretary peskov said that putin had indeed received letters about the merger, but would not interfere in business operations.
at the same time, vladislav's unexpected "supporters" have also attracted much attention. in july this year, ramzan kadyrov, leader of the chechen republic, shared a video of a meeting with vladislav. in the video, vladislav publicly complained that his wife "ran away from home" because she was "involved in some strange companies and someone took over the (wild berry) business under the guise of a merger." kadyrov criticized wild berry for being "blatantly and shamelessly acquired" by the mirzoyan brothers and other "several famous caucasians," saying that he would do his best to "help tatiana return to her family" and "protect their legitimate business." however, tatiana herself denied that she was forced to participate in any transaction, saying that the disagreement was caused by the couple's divorce.
according to the russian newspaper kommersant, there may be north caucasians among those detained after the shootout at wildberry. judging from the shell casings, they were equipped with foreign-made military weapons.
andrei kazantsev-vaisman, an expert on russia and central asia, wrote in august that the russia-ukraine conflict has triggered several changes in the russian elite, and the current wildberry merger controversy may be a conflict between two interest groups in the north caucasus, one representing dagestan and the other representing chechnya.
some analysts believe that the "caucasian" mentioned by kadyrov is the behind-the-scenes boss of russ, suleiman kerimov, a well-known businessman in dagestan. vaisman pointed out that one of the owners of russ is a duma deputy from dagestan, and the merger was also facilitated by kerimov. kadyrov's involvement in the wildberry merger means that the situation has turned into a conflict between different factions of ethnic political elites.
the paper reporter hou danwei
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