Vladislav Bakalchuk, the estranged husband of Wildberries e-commerce major and Russia’s richest woman Tatiana Bakalchuk, threatens to sabotage the merger deal of the company with Russ Group billboard operator and claim 50% of Wildberries if the pair divorce, according to an interview with the RBC business portal.

As followed in detail by bne IntelliNews, Russia’s largest e-commerce operator Wildberries continues to be rocked by controversy surrounding a merger deal with Russ Group, an outdoor advertising operator that is a tenth of the size of Wildberries. The founder of the company is getting divorced from husband, who has turned to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov for help.

Since day one, the e-commerce major has been managed by its founder and the richest woman in Russia, Tatiana Bakalchuk, who holds 99% in the company, and her husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk, who only owns 1%.

But Vladislav Bakalchuk claims as there was no prenuptial agreement or marriage contract between the pair, all of the assets should actually be split 50:50, as per Russian divorce laws, which was confirmed to RBC by marriage lawyers. He also said that he “wants to resolve everything without going to court”. Tatiana Bakalchuk was a school teacher when the pair married before she went on to launch Wildberries.

Tatiana Bakalchuk herself issued a video message in which she reassured she was “alive, healthy and not held hostage,” and reiterated that she will launch divorce proceedings with Vladislav Bakalchuk.

In an interview given to RBC she said she did not know “what Vladislav is misleading other people for and for what purpose. Both my children and I are doing well. I am very sorry that family difficulties have become public".

She reiterated her backing for the Russ Group merger, which is necessary “to transform in order to maintain growth and develop" and "is fully approved and supported".

As bne IntelliNews speculated in a recent opinion piece, the deal appears to be part of a move by Russian President Vladimir Putin to increase the Kremlin’s influence over Wildberries, Russia’s answer to Amazon, as part of a broader move to enhance the Kremlin’s control over Russia’s answer to Facebook (VK) and Google (Yandex).

Tatiana Bakalchuk did not comment on the reported resignation of the recently appointed retail-savvy CEO Olga Naumova, and also stopped short of name dropping and confirming previous reports that Putin had personally approved the merger.

Following the latest developments around the Bakalchuks and Kadyrov’s surprise involvement, most of the unnamed e-commerce market sources surveyed by The Bell believed that Russ Group was acting in the interests of Suleiman Kerimov, the Dagestan republic senator controlling Russia's largest gold miner, Polyus Gold.

In 2018, Kerimov was placed on the US SDN sanctions list and came under EU sanctions in March 2022 as part of the latter’s response to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. In 2022 the US has put him on the priority list of individuals that are subject to sanctions monitoring. Kerimov senior is also sanctioned by the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Switzerland.

His son Said Kerimov resigned from the board of Polyus Gold at the same time as the Kerimovs’ holding company reduced its stake in the business to less than 50%, offloading about $6bn worth of the company's shares.

Moreover, in May Said Kerimov donated a 46.35% stake in Polyus Gold to Russian Islamic charity organisation the Fund of Support for Islamic Organisations.

In the November 2022 SDN list update the US sanctioned Said Kerimov and other members of Kerimov's family, as well as four French Riviera real estate companies linked to Gulnara Kerimova, as well as Swiss nationals and companies linked to real estate assets.

To remind, Suleiman Kerimov was detained in France in November 2017 on tax evasion charges for property he owns in the Riviera. He was later released after paying €40mn in bail and in 2018 was acquitted of all charges in France.