Russian law enforcement agencies have detained and pressed charges against Vladislav Bakalchuk, estranged husband of Russia’s richest woman Tatiana Bakalchuk and majority owner of Wildberries, according to RBC business portal and Kommersant daily citing unnamed official sources.

As followed in detail by bne IntelliNews, Russia’s largest e-commerce operator Wildberries is 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 and CEO of the company Tatiana is getting divorced from husband, who has turned to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov for help.

In a violent development of the ongoing divorce proceedings, this week two people were killed in a shootout as Vladislav tried to storm the offices of the country's largest e-commerce operator.

While Russian media largely ignored the incident reminiscent of the racketeering raids of the “wild 90’s”, independent observers were waiting to see how officials would react to an attack on Wildberries office only a walking distance away from the Kremlin.

Arresting and pressing charges against Vladislav Bakalchuk would mean that Kremin is slapping Chechen strongman Kadyrov on the hand. Kadyrov has been vocally supporting Vladislav in his attempts to “bring his wife to senses” and stop a controversial merger of Wildberries with Russ Group, believed to be controlled by another influential oligarch and senator of Dagestan Suleiman Kerimov.

Unconfirmed reports also claim that as Vladislav Bakalchuk attempted to storm Wildberries offices, he was flanked by Chechen fighters of the Akhmat Fight Club, founded by Kadyrov. According to the sources of RBC and Kommersant, following the deadly raid Vladislav has been charged under the Criminal Code for murder, attempted murder, attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, and others.

Bakalchuk's defence continued to insist that the raid on Wildberries offices was a premeditated meeting that got escalated by Wildberries security, arguing that he “notified law enforcement authorities in advance that he would come to the company's office accompanied by his representatives and lawyers”. Vladislav argued that he was “invited to negotiate” the halt of a warehouse construction project operated by his company for Wildberries, but Tatiana Bakalchuk denied that any meetings were supposed to take place.

On the same day, another Wildberries office, located in the Iskra-Park business centre near the Dinamo metro station in Moscow, was attacked, according to RBC. The company claims that 30-40 people “in sports and military uniforms” broke into the facilities and attacked the guard.

As a reminder, 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.

In the meantime unconfirmed reports claim that Dagestan senator and controversial billionaire Suleiman Kerimov is behind the merger of Russ and Wildberries, with two main interpretations of the merger emerging. According to one of them, "Tatiana fell in love, and her love has something to do with Russ," unnamed sources close to Bakalchuk told Forbes.

Other sources claim that Tatiana has been coming under heavy administrative and possibly even criminal prosecution pressure after a recent fire incident at the Wildberries sorting hub in Saint Petersburg, which was rushed into operation with the necessary regulatory approvals.

Reportedly, to deal with the matter at the highest level she could have turned to Kerimov, a Kremlin insider, and Russ Group, in exchange for a share in Wildberries.

bne IntelliNews speculated in a recent opinion piece, the deal could also 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).