Tatyana Bakalchuk. Founder and owner of 99% of the shares of the Wildberries online store. The richest woman in Russia. Photo: Alexander Shcherbak/TASS
Stories like this, with family scandals, divorces, division of millions of dollars, are what we usually call Santa Barbara. And since we couldn’t resist making cinematic comparisons, following the law of the genre, we will immediately list the main actors. To make it easier to understand this confusing story.
WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE SCANDAL SURROUNDING WILD BLACKBERRIES
CAST
– Tatiana Bakalchuk. Founder and owner of 99% of the shares of the Wildberries online store. Forbes estimates her fortune at $7.4 billion, the richest woman in Russia.
– Vladislav Bakalchuk. Her husband, co-founder and owner of 1% of Wildberries shares. The Bakalchuks have been married for 21 years and have seven children. The youngest, twins, were born in 2021.
– Ramzan Kadyrov. The head of Chechnya and, apparently, also an old acquaintance of Vladislav.
– Adam Delimkhanov. State Duma deputy, originally from Chechnya, Hero of Russia and the Chechen Republic.
– Robert Mirzoyan. CEO of Russ Outdoor, which deals with outdoor advertising. Recently, Wildberries and Russ Outdoor decided to merge. Bakalchuk should become the general director of the united group, and Mirzoyan should become the CEO. Vladimir Putin supported the merger of Wildberries and Russ Outdoor.
Vladislav Bakalchuk. Her husband, co-founder and owner of 1% of Wildberries shares.
EPISODE 1: FRIEND AND BROTHER
Now to the plot. There are two people in the picture: Vladislav Bakalchuk and Ramzan Kadyrov. This video appeared on the Telegram channel of the head of Chechnya on July 23, after which the story became public.
– Hi, long time no see. I heard you’re having problems there? – Kadyrov gets straight to the point.
– Not very good. The wife left home, got involved in an incomprehensible company that, under the guise of a merger, is squeezing the business and withdrawing assets…
– I give you my word that I will not allow you to interfere in this way and destroy family life. I also heard that there are people from the Caucasus (among those whose actions Vladislav complains about – Ed.) … These are not masculine actions, the Caucasus will not accept them. I will inform the structures that are now signing the documents: you are destroying a family business, destroying a family with seven children. “I am with you to the end,” says Kadyrov.
The recording lasts three minutes, but Ramzan Kadyrov briefly recounted its essence on his Telegram channel:
– Today my FRIEND Vladislav Bakalchuk, with whom we have known each other for about 10 years, came to visit me. As it turned out, since March of this year, the Bakalchuk family has had serious problems both within the family and with the established family business. The attackers 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 in order to at least discuss what is happening, writes the head of Chechnya. – The assets of the Wildberries company, on the creation of which Vladislav and Tatyana devoted 21 years of hard work, have been hastily passed into the wrong hands since the beginning of July through the company Russ Outdoor by means of legal machinations. Moreover, the scammers do not even try to create the appearance of naturalness and purity of what is happening: the turnover of Russ Outdoor is a hundred times less than that of Wildberries, and the nature of the business of the online retailer WB and the advertising operator Russ also do not coincide in interests. There is an obvious and blatant takeover by an assailant.
Now we are watching a flashback (that’s what the scenes from the past in the middle of the film are called). In mid-June, plans were announced to merge Wildberries and Russ Outdoor. The new group will compete with global giants Amazon and Alibaba. The plans include stores, warehouses and logistics centres in almost the entire “friendly” world: China, India, countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the CIS… And the merged company also plans, no less, to create an international payment system for payments in rubles, bypassing SWIFT (from which the largest Russian banks were excluded due to sanctions).
“I cannot prevent large-scale fraud on a national scale, so I will do everything possible to help Tatyana Vladimirovna return to her family and protect the legitimate business.” On my instructions, my dear BROTHER, Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Adam Delimkhanov, will deal with the issue,” Kadyrov continues.
Adam Delimjanov quickly promised to complete the mission and “bring everything to the end.”
There are two people in the picture: Vladislav Bakalchuk and Ramzan Kadyrov. This video appeared on the Telegram channel of the Chechen leader on July 23.
EPISODE 2: BAKALCHUK FAMILY DIVORCE
Tatyana Bakalchuk responded immediately.
In the evening, she expressed her version of the events.
– This is not a raider takeover. This is 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, – he said on his Telegram channel. And he posted a photo in which Tatyana, Vladislav and Robert Mirzoyan are sitting next to each other and discussing something.
And so that you have no doubts about what exactly Tatyana means by the word “divorce” (this is not just a divorce, but also a deception), here is the official statement from the Wildberries press service:
“We are sure that the details of the divorce proceedings and the emotional details are not of interest to commercial publications.”
So we are still talking about the breakup of the family. And Tatyana, with her message, makes it clear to the viewer: all the terms of the agreement to merge WB and Russ were discussed with Vladislav, there were no secrets from him and all this could not come as a surprise to him. So this story is not primarily about business, but about family problems.
Bokalchuk posted a photo in which Tatyana, Vladislav and Robert Mirzoyan are sitting next to each other and discussing something.
EPISODE 3: INTRIGUING
Of course, there are many questions here. There is only one answer: nothing changes for WB customers and sellers:
“Wildberries and Russ continues to operate stably to provide goods and services to our customers, all obligations are fully met,” Wildberries’ press service reports.
And what awaits the viewers of this undoubtedly already very popular series is something the writers are keeping a secret for now.
Will Vladislav and Tatyana make peace?
And if not, who will the children stay with and what compensation will Vladislav receive?
Will Ramzan Akhmatovich and Adam Sultanovich help save the Bakalchuk family?
All (well, almost all) details of this complicated story can be found in the upcoming materials of KP.RU.
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How Wildberries was created
Market’s story can be found on many sites in the series “How a woman can start her own business.” She really seems inspiring.
An ordinary English teacher, Tatyana Bakalchuk (née Kim), went on maternity leave. And she started thinking about how she could earn extra money without leaving home. I came up with the idea based on my own situation: women with children are not comfortable doing a lot of shopping, but they also want to dress beautifully. From this idea, the Bakalchuk family business was born in 2004.
Her husband Vladislav, a radiophysicist by training and a small businessman at the time, helped his wife Tatyana create an online store. It is said that no more than $700 was invested in launching the business, which in two decades grew into the modern Wildberries and made Tatyana Bakalchuk the richest businesswoman in the country.
