The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, published a video with the husband of the founder of Wildberries, Vladislav Bakalchuk, and called the merger of the marketplace with the outdoor advertising operator Russ Outdoor “an open and blatant raider takeover.”
The merger of Wildberries, which is 99% owned by Tatyana Bakalchuk, was announced on June 18. The company called the goal of the deal “the creation of a digital trading platform” that “will allow millions of representatives of medium, small and micro businesses to use a unique and affordable tool to promote their products.”
According to Kadyrov, it was Russ Outdoor that carried out the “raider takeover” of Wildberries. According to the head of Chechnya, Tatyana Bakalchuk’s husband Vladislav, whom they have known for ten years, came to visit him. Kadyrov said that his friend had “serious problems both within the family and with the established family business.”
“The raiders protected Vladislav Sergeevich’s wife Tatyana from her husband and seven children. The spouses do not have the opportunity to see each other and communicate to at least discuss what is happening. <…> I know that the levers of this raiding process are in the hands of the brothers Levan and Robert Mirzoyan, as well as several famous Caucasians,” Kadyrov said. He promised to involve State Duma deputy Adam Delimkhanov in solving the problem.
As Faridaily writes, among the “famous Caucasians” whom Kadyrov mentions may be billionaire and senator from Dagestan Suleiman Kerimov — according to Kommersant, he may be the real beneficiary of Russ Outdoor.
Tatyana Bakalchuk reacted to Kadyrov’s video. She wrote that this was “not a raider takeover,” but a “scam.” “From the very beginning, everything was agreed with Vladislav; he was personally present at the presentation to the top management of the new structure of the merged company. Here’s proof),” said the founder of Wildberries and published a photo from the presentation.
Later, Bakalchuk recorded a video message in which she said that she “doesn’t need to be saved” and she “is not a hostage.” According to the businesswoman, her husband owns 1% of Wildberries shares and does not participate in the management of the company. “Why Vladislav is misleading other people, and by whom and for what purpose the raiding story was invented, is a big mystery to me,” Bakalchuk said.
RBC and Forbes wrote that the merger of companies was approved by the government, and Putin appointed Deputy Head of his Administration Maxim Oreshkin as the curator of the project. RBC sources claimed that one of the directions of the project should be the creation of “a payment system for settlements in rubles around the world, bypassing SWIFT and the digital banking network.” According to plans, the service should become a competitor to Amazon, Alphabet and Alibaba.
Updated at 22:25 Added Bakalchuk’s words from her video message.