Shooting at the Largest Russian Online Retailer’s Main Office Near the Kremlin. What Happened?

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Two people killed, several injured

Доступно на русскомDate18 Sep 2024AuthorEditors

A shooting involving Chechen security forces took place in the Wildberries office in the Romanov Dvor business center (900 meters from the Kremlin). As a result, two office security guards were killed — the murder of the first was confirmed by the company’s founder Tatyana Bakalchuk, while the death of the second as a result of wounds received was reported by RIA Novosti and Forbes, citing a source familiar with the situation.

Security in the area around the Kremlin is to be carried out by the Federal Guard Service of Russia (FSO).

What is Wildberries

Wildberries, often considered Russia’s version of Amazon, was founded in 2004 by Vladislav and Tatyana Bakalchuk. It has grown into the largest e-commerce platform in Russia, with operations now spanning 7 countries, including post-Soviet states and China. In recent years, the company has experienced significant growth: in 2022, Wildberries nearly doubled its revenue, reaching 1.67 trillion rubles (around $22 billion). Tatyana Bakalchuk is Russia’s first self-made woman billionaire.

A major event in 2024 was the merger of Wildberries with the outdoor advertising operator RussGroup, a deal supported by the Russian president himself. However, this merger triggered a public feud between Vladislav and Tatyana Bakalchuk, which escalated to legal conflicts and even a violent confrontation at the Wildberries office, which the further story is about.

What happened

The first reports about the shooting appeared around 12:45 Moscow time. Students were evacuated in the building of the Moscow State University’s journalism faculty on Mokhovaya Street, which is located next to the Wildberries office.

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A large number of law enforcers were summoned to the spot. The injured were hospitalized, and about 30 participants in the shooting were detained.

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In the video, screams can be heard from inside the office building, with company employees hiding under desks.

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As a company employee told the Ostorozhno Moskva Telegram channel, a group of men came to the office at noon. They were drinking coffee and waiting at the reception desk for Wildberries co-founder Vladislav Bakalchuk.

“The group was more than six men in civilian clothes. At some point they abruptly start running, breaking the doors, the elevator. Everything was happening at the central entrance. Then the shooting started, everything was in smoke, we hid, after three or four minutes it quieted down a bit, we started to get out through the back entrance. Another group of people were evacuated to a safe distance with us. Then we saw that a policeman was wounded, he had been shot,” the eyewitness said.

At 13:30 Moscow time Vladislav Bakalchuk left the office with his guards and lawyer.

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Telegram channels Baza and Shot reported that Vladislav Bakalchuk was being interrogated in the Investigative Committee. According to them, Bakalchuk is in the status of a witness. Investigators have opened a criminal case under articles on murder, attempted murder of two people or more, illegal possession of firearms, self-rule and attempt on the life of a law enforcement officer.

Tatyana Bakalchuk addressed her spouse in her Telegram channel: “Vladislav, what are you doing? How will you look into the eyes of your parents and our children?”

Statements of the parties

Vladislav Bakalchuk stated that he came with his team to the office for negotiations and was attacked.

“Today at 12 o’clock there was to be a meeting with the management of RWB (owns the Wildberries trademark), about which they were notified in advance. Our lawyers sent a formal notice to Wildberries and also requested a settlement of all accumulated disagreements. We came with a clear plan of action: to hand over official documents and discuss the important issue of building new warehouses, which has been suspended due to Robert Mirzoyan's instructions,” he claims.

According to Vladislav, his men were unarmed, they were protected by police officers. “My colleagues who came with me were wounded. This was not a shooting, as the RWB leadership tries to present. It was a real shooting,” Bakalchuk stated.

At the same time, his former wife Tatyana, who runs Wildberries, claims that Vladislav came to the office to raid the company.

“The statement about the alleged negotiations, to which an armed group came, sounds absurd, as no one agreed on any negotiations,” she said.

The essence of the conflict

In July 2024, Vladislav Bakalchuk came to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, asking for help in getting his wife and company back. Kadyrov said that certain “raiders” were trying to keep Bakalchuk’s children and wife away from him through the outdoor advertising operator RussOutdoor, as well as to take away his assets. Kadyrov promised to look into the matter. RussOutdoor is owned by brothers Robert and Levan Mirzoyan, but the real beneficiary of the business is Senator Suleiman Kerimov.

Later, Tatyana Bakalchuk explained that the conflict is taking place against the background of the spouses' divorce. The publication Proekt claims that Tatyana and Robert Mirzoyan are having an affair, which became the reason for the divorce and redistribution of assets. Mirzoyans and Kerimov also allegedly helped Bakalchuk after a major fire at the Wildberries warehouse near St. Petersburg, when she got into trouble with the law.

A few days ago at a press conference Vladislav Bakalchuk told about the stoppage of construction of Wildberries warehouses. The entrepreneur is the sole owner of the company WB Development, which was building warehouse facilities for RWB. However, the new management of the company froze payments in favor of WB Development, according to Bakalchuk. According to him, the construction of 32 facilities has been paralyzed.

In response, RWB began preparing a lawsuit for 27 billion rubles for failure to fulfill its obligations under the contracts. Bakalchuk expected to settle the conflict out of court.

Participants, fatalities and casualties

Two Wildberries security guards were killed in the shooting. Telegram channels close to the law enforcers say they are MMA fighter Islam Tsechoev (Elmurzaev) and 41-year-old Adam Almazov. Seven people were injured, two of them were police officers, the Investigative Committee reported.

Vladislav Bakalchuk came to the “negotiations” accompanied by Chechens.

At least three MMA fighters were involved in the conflict on Vladislav Bakalchuk’s side, Mash claims. Among them was Umar Chichaev, a serviceman of the Chechen Rosgvardiya and a fighter of the Akhmat club founded by Ramzan Kadyrov, Agentstvo notes. On social networks he, among other things, published a photo with Ramzan Kadyrov and Adam Delimkhanov.

In addition, Chichaev posted photos on social networks wearing the uniform of SOBR Akhmat. As IStories discovered, he was also recorded in the phones as a member of SOBR Terek.

Bakalchuk was also accompanied by Anas Eymurzaev, a former prosecutor of Chechnya’s Shelkovsky district who now appears to be Vladislav Bakalchuk’s lawyer, Agentstvo notes.

What was going on in the Wildberries office at Dynamo

“Negotiators” of Vladislav Bakalchuk also came to the office of Wildberries near Dynamo metro station, Ostorozhno Novosti reported. The information was confirmed to IStories by an employee of the office.

According to him, at about noon, the office guards began to barricade the entrance with chairs, but it did not help. The office manager at that moment turned to the company’s employees and announced that they would not be able to leave the building in the next hour.

After that, people in overalls, Chechens and men in “respectable suits” came to the office and introduced themselves as lawyers, according to the IStories interlocutor. The footage from the scene confirms this information: it shows Caucasians and men in suits walking down the office corridor. According to the Wildberries employee, there were “about a dozen” Chechens, and less than ten men accompanying them.

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The “lawyers” occupied one of the meeting rooms and started discussing something, but their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the police.

In total, about ten law enforcement officers arrived at the office, the IStories interlocutor said. They were accompanied by a man in civilian clothes.

The law enforcers and Vladislav Bakalchuk’s “negotiators” did not show physical aggression towards each other, but there were “verbal altercations” between them.

“At one point, the Chechen handed a man in civilian clothes, who was accompanying the policemen, a cell phone with the words that either a deputy or a senator wanted to talk to him,” the office employee claims. This could be about Ramzan Kadyrov’s associate, deputy Adam Delimkhanov.

According to the IStories interlocutor, the man who accompanied the security forces explained to the unnamed parliamentarian on the phone that the police “arrived in order to maintain civil and public order and prevent incidents.”

After a while, all office staff were asked to leave the premises. “My colleagues and I were told that today and tomorrow we will work remotely. And we will return to the office when the order comes,” said an employee.

What is happening in the office now is unknown. Vladislav Bakalchuk left the main office of Wildberries, where the shooting took place, together with his guards and lawyer.

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