​​Russia’s richest women and founder and owner of the most successful e-commerce firm Wildberries Tatiana Bakalchuk released a tearful video on September 19 after two people were killed in a shootout after her estranged husband Vladislav tried to storm her offices.

Russia’s state run television stations ignored the incident completely, the worst example of corporate violence since the wild days of the 1990s, and while the print press did cover the story, they expunged the role of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov completely, a central character in the story.

“Armed men burst into our office and started a shootout – a massacre. Young men have been killed. Vladislav, what are you doing? How will you look your parents and our children in the eyes?” a tearful Tatiana Bakalchuk said in a video post made walking through the Wildberries offices. “How could you let this situation get so insanely out of hand?”

According to Vladislav Bakalchuk, the incident started when his team was attacked by a violent group while his associates were trying to enter the swanky Romanov Dvor business centre in central Moscow, that is two blocks from the Kremlin and Red Square.

Vladislav Bakalchuk claims he had been “invited to negotiate” the halt of a warehouse construction project. The company said in a statement no negotiations had been offered or scheduled. A video shared by the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Mash captured the scene, showing a scuffle outside the office, followed by gunfire and shouting. Two men died of their wounds.

The incident is part of a growing power struggle between the Bakalchuks for control over Russia’s most successful e-commerce business.

Russian law enforcement officials reported that a total of two police officers were injured, and approximately 30 individuals were detained. Additionally, the Russian state-run news agency TASS reported that a Wildberries security guard was killed during the incident. According to the Telegram channel Shot, seven people were wounded in the shooting, including a "colleague of Bakalchuk," who had accompanied him to the office.

Federal TV ignored the shooting at Wildberries and the involvement of Kadyrov, who met recently with Vladislav Bakalchuk and promised to support him in what many saw as a move by the Chechen strongman to expand his empire. Tatiana Bakalchuk set the company up and owns 99% of the shares, whereas Vladislav Bakalchuk only owns 1%. The company has been thrown into turmoil after Tatiana announced she plans to merge Wildberries with the much smaller Rus outdoor advertising company in July in a deal analysts say makes no business sense.

Kadyrov’s involvement in the deal has only underscored the political nature of the merger although the details of what is actually going on remain opaque. The timid coverage by the Russian press also strongly suggests the charged political atmosphere surrounding the story.

The main federal Russian TV channels ignored the shooting at the Wildberries office completely – a high profile incident and rare gunbattle at a household named company in the heart of Moscow. During the corporate wars in the lawless Yeltsin-era street battles between armed groups were commonplace, but ceased almost completely after Russian President Vladimir Putin ushered in a period of prosperity and stability after he took office in 2000.

It remains unclear who the Chechen armed men were that accompanied Vladislav Bakalchuk, but the southern republic has become heavily militarised under Kadyrov’s rule, who maintains his own regional army, known as the Kadyrovtsy, who are also fighting in Ukraine.

Russian independent outlet The Insider was unable to find a single mention of the shooting event in any news broadcasts and talk shows of the main TV channels on September 18.

Print media, on the contrary, actively covered the news, reports The Insider, however, universally failed to mention Kadyrov connection with the story, despite the fact that armed Chechens participated in the shootout.

The main story on state media was the floods in Europe and the mass evacuations in Czechia. Vesti discussed exploding "deadly pagers" and how unfair the White House is to Trump. A separate block was devoted to the fact that the Ganesha festival has begun in India: "The elephant-headed deity can be found everywhere." They showed Putin's gratitude to women at a women's forum in St Petersburg and again the Storm Boris in Europe. But the main blocks are, of course, devoted to how Russia is defeating everyone in Ukraine. No mention of a deadly gunbattle in the heart of the Russian capital that threatened the life of Russia’s richest billionaire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tatiana Bakalchuk denied her husband’s claim there were to be negotiations, stating that no such talks had been scheduled. According to the CEO, the company contacted law enforcement after her ex-husband attempted to take over the company by seizing the office, which she described as a failed hostile takeover attempt.

"The claim of supposed negotiations attended by an armed group is absurd since no negotiations were arranged. I publicly urge law enforcement to take control of this situation... This is now a hostile takeover attempt. Or rather, a failed one," she wrote on Telegram.

In a comment to Fontanka, Vladislav Bakalchuk denied that his team was responsible for the violence, referring to the shooting as an "attempted murder" against him.

The dispute between the former couple began in June, when Wildberries announced its plans to merge with the billboard company Russ Group to form a new digital trading platform called RWB.

The proposed merger was opposed by Tatiana Bakalchuk’s husband, Vladislav, who publicly stated that he wanted to block the deal. This disagreement escalated, ultimately leading Tatiana, the CEO, to file for divorce from her now ex-husband. The divorce was finalised in August. However, Vladislav claims that, since there was no prenuptial agreement or marriage contract, all assets should be split 50:50 as per Russian divorce laws.

One of the videos filmed from the outside and released on social media  shows about ten people in dark clothes, with beards and hats trying to break into the Wildberries office. The crowd includes several people in police uniforms with the words "MVD of Russia" on their backs – the initials of Russia’s Interior Ministry, The Bell reports. 

One of the attackers broke the glass doors- apparently with a telescopic baton – after which the attackers burst into the lobby. About 20 shots from pistols are heard. Videos filmed from the inside show a shootout on both sides, with the participation of the business centre’s security.

Seven people were injured in the skirmish, including two law enforcement officers (it is unknown which side they fought on). Two people died, who were Wildberries security guards, the company confirmed.

In the evening, the Mash Telegram channel, which is close to the security forces, reported that Vladislav Bakalchuk had been detained and was being interrogated by investigators. SHOT claims that Bakalchuk gave testimony to both the police and the Investigative Committee, but remains a witness. A post on Bakalchuk's channel on behalf of his lawyers states that he is "currently" neither detained nor arrested. No other detentions have been reported, either officially or unofficially.