The drama comes against a backdrop of deep disagreement between the founding couple of the Russian e-commerce giant, who are in the process of divorcing.
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A shooting at the Moscow headquarters of the Wildberries company left two dead and seven injured, including two police officers, on Wednesday, September 18, investigators announced. The tragedy comes against a backdrop of deep disagreement between the founding couple of the Russian e-commerce giant, who are in the process of divorcing. Tatiana Bakalchouk, Russia’s richest woman, and Vladislav Bakalchouk have been at loggerheads for several weeks over the future of the company, of which she owns 99% and her husband 1%.
The story is shocking and rare, especially since the shooting took place a few hundred meters from the Kremlin, in an ultra-secure neighborhood. Russian news agencies have also reported dozens of arrests, but the authorities have not yet commented on this point. An AFP team saw several police cars and ambulances with flashing lights on in front of the company’s headquarters. Investigators were busy at the scene of the incident.
According to Tatiana Bakalchouk’s story on Telegram, her husband initially “attempted to enter the offices”accompanied by two former leaders of the group and armed individuals. The Wildberries group claimed in a comment to AFP that “The armed men who accompanied Vladislav Bakalchuk were (then) the first to open fire”, “wounding” police officers and security guards.
The husband, for his part, gave a radically different account of the events. Vladislav Bakalchouk, 47, assured on Telegram that security first “refused to let (them) pass”, before that“a shooting breaks out”hurting his colleagues according to him. “My men were not armed, we were protected by police officers. The first shots came from inside the building”he said, referring to “panic” people on site and “smoke everywhere”. The husband claims to have gone to the headquarters “to negotiate a halt to the construction of warehouses”one of the points of disagreement with his wife, who swore that “No one had agreed to discussions” Wednesday.
Wildberries, founded in 2004, is present in several former Soviet countries and claims more than 10 million daily orders. This success story has made Tatiana Bakalchouk, 48, the richest woman in Russia. Her fortune is estimated by Forbes at 7.9 billion dollars.