It was at lunchtime on Wednesday that a group led by businessman Vladislav Bakaltyuk stormed the headquarters of the Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries in central Moscow, Russian media write.
According to the independent news site Agentstvo, three MMA men from the North Caucasus took part. One of them is Usman Chityayev, who is a member of a club founded by Chechnya’s hardline leader Ramzan Kadyrov. On Chityaev’s page on the Russian social network Vkontakte, which TV4 Nyheterna found, there are several pictures where he poses in uniform and is seen together with Kadyrov.
Two dead
Two people are said to have been shot dead in the chaos and according to information in the Russian media it is about security guards at the company. Several people are also said to have been injured.
TV4 Nyheterna has previously told that the origin of the chaos is a divorce. Vladislav Bakatjuk was previously married to Tatjana Bakaltjuk, who is Russia’s richest woman and is said to be worth just over 75 billion Swedish kronor.
Last summer, she told in a video on social media that she is divorcing her husband. Vladislav Bakaltyuk later told Russian media that the couple had not signed a prenuptial agreement and he therefore demanded to receive half of the company’s assets. Tatjana countered that the ex-husband only owned one percent of the company.
Kadyrov came out and sided with her husband, claiming that he would ensure that “Tatyana was imposed on the family”.
Reviewer: Strange deal
Before the divorce became known, Wildberries had announced that it was merging with advertising company Russ Group. Many observers considered the deal strange because Russ Group is several times smaller than Wildberries. But Putin is said to have approved it.
There has been speculation that the row over the e-commerce giant is part of the Russian power elite’s redistribution of assets in the shadow of the war in Ukraine. Businessmen with close connections to the authorities are said to have taken over the assets of foreign companies when they left the Russian market.
Vladislav Bakaltyuk claims that he and his people were attacked when they came to the company’s office to participate in negotiations, but this is denied by the ex-wife. She claims that the ex-husband tried to take over the company’s premises.
– We have nothing to hide, so I ask that the result be made public when the investigation has arrived at a motive for this scandalous behavior, she writes on Telegram.