The North Caucasian clan warfare behind a deadly dispute at Wildberries, ‘Russia’s Amazon’
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The drama at Russia's Amazon, the saga of the Bakalchuks. The messy divorce amid the merger of the online marketplace Wildberries and a much smaller outdoor advertising company called Rus Group has led to some surprising events in the last few months. But nothing was wilder than a deadly shootout on September 18th at a Wildberries office in Moscow. Wildberries founder and CEO Tatyana Kim, who recently restored her maiden name,

has been having a hell of a time shaking loose her husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk. But their very public divorce is just the tip of the iceberg in what's become a battle between some of the most powerful political groups in Russia's North Caucasus. So let's talk about the Wildberries office shootout and the Klan war at its center. Welcome to the Naked Pravda. Howdy folks, welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Rothrock, the managing editor of Meduza in English. I'll admit to you now that

This week's subject matter is pretty damn confusing. We're diving into the world of Chechen, Dagestani, and English clan politics, which means the story revolves around violent actions by shady characters with murky ties to big businesses, government office, and the police. First, let's recap what happened at Wildberries on September 18th.

Vladislav Bakalchuk, the soon-to-be ex-husband of Wildberry's founder and CEO Tatyana Kim, tried to storm the company's office in the Romanov Dvor Business Center, just a few hundred yards from the Kremlin itself. Bakalchuk has very publicly opposed the Wildberry's Russ Group merger and recently met with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to plead his case, winning the dictator's support.

Bakalchuk showed up to Romanov Dvor with two former senior executives from the company, but more importantly, he was accompanied by former and current Chechen police officers and national guardsmen, as well as some trained martial artists from Chechnya, including former world and European taekwondo champion Umar Chachayev, exactly the kind of people you'd bring to a business meeting.

According to the Nouvelle Gazette of Europe, it was Chachayev who started shooting his automatic pistol after he was hit by shots from a rubber bullet gun. Chachayev reportedly fired his service weapon, though his status in the National Guard is a bit fuzzy. Chachayev's older brother, an influential former Special Forces commander in Chechnya, later came to the hospital where his brother was being treated and tried to break him out. But that little operation also failed.

On the other side of the conflict, defending the Wildberries' office was another team of police and police-adjacent men, these with ties to Ingushetia, one of the republic's neighboring Chechnya. According to the Novaya Gazeta, Wildberries had recently hired a private security company with ties to Ingush State Duma deputy Bekhan Barakoyev, who until just three years ago worked as a vice president of a subsidiary of Rusgroup, the smaller company that is now merging with Wildberries.

In all this, the most important shadow figure at Russ Outdoor is Suleiman Kerimov, a billionaire senator from Dagestan. You'll hear a lot more about him later on the show. Long story short, the office shootout left two Englishmen dead and more than two dozen suspects in police custody. Though Vladislav Blokolchuk miraculously escaped charges as a mere witness. He claims they just showed up for a planned business meeting, but Tatiana Kim calls the incident a failed attempt at a hostile takeover.

All that is a very superficial overview of recent events and some of the Klan rivalries at play in this conflict. To learn more about this story from someone who actually understands it, I spoke to Ilya Shumanov, the General Director of Transparency International Russia in Exile. ♪

Actually, there were police officers from both sides of the conflict. What does that mean exactly? There's only one police force? Yeah. You're saying each side had law enforcement? Yeah, law enforcement and the police officers. Some of them were from the Rosgvardia, some of them from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Officials from law enforcement from both sides. Some of them came with...

delegation with Bokalchuk, Vladislav Bokalchuk, some of them were there, already there with defenders, let's call them. And some police officers were only observers. They came on the police cars and they just observed the situation and did nothing during this conflict. And it means that there are, let's say, independent groups from the law enforcement who supported each side of the conflict.

There's like three groups of police then. The Wildberries has police that it's recruited, the Bakalchuk has his, and then there's just some cops that were called essentially on the day. Yeah, it's funny to hear, yeah. Pretty messy. It sounds complicated. Yeah, but it's true. Okay. So I think that Ramzan Kadyrov is somewhat of a known entity for even foreigners. I mean, he gets news coverage around the world for being who he is.

But what's so special about Suleiman Kadyrov? Because a billionaire, a member of the Federation Council, so he has legal immunity, obviously. His power is less obvious than Kadyrov, it seems to me. And yet here he is in a conflict with Kadyrov. And he seems to have won this round, at least, because, I don't know, it seems like Kadyrov's had to run away with his tail between his legs. He's lost this particular conflict. So can you lay out for us

For listeners, who is this Kirimov individual? Yeah, he is long-term senator in Russian Consul Federation, part of Russian parliament.

He didn't use this platform for doing any legislative work and he didn't do any statements during his being in office as a senator. And I suppose you're absolutely right when you're naming him as, let's say, the person who would like to receive this parliamentary immunity because of his status.

Actually, Kerimov is a businessman and at the same time he is a senator. It's possible in Russia, only in Russia maybe.

And he has extensive experience. You could be president of the United States. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there is a legal side of this. Right, right, right. Yeah. And Kirimov, he has extensive experience in anti-crisis management, so-called anti-crisis management. Actually, he came to some difficult or complicated business situations and tried to repack and resell these assets.

When he, let's say, achieved any success in negotiation with one of the sites, there were several cases. For example, one case in 2010 when he bought Uralcali from Dmitry Rabovlev, he's also a Russian oligarch. And three years later, he sold this asset to Mikhail Prokhorov and Dmitry Mazepin. Yeah, and there were such cases, there are plenty of such cases in his business track.

And I suppose that maybe this project, let's call about the merging between Wildberries and the second company, Ruth Outdoor, is something like the case I mentioned previously.

Sources have told the news outlet The Bell that Suleiman Kirimov became acquainted with Tatyana Kim after a major fire this January that gutted one of the Wildberries' warehouses and triggered a wave of regulatory problems because the facility was missing official licenses and things like fire inspections. Officials opened a criminal investigation, but that case went nowhere, apparently thanks to networking provided by Kirimov.

who put the Wildberries CEO in a room with Russ Outdoors management and, most importantly, senior officials in the Kremlin, eventually including Putin himself. The president reportedly endorsed the idea of a merger as a means of creating a new corporate entity supposedly capable of rivaling the likes of Amazon, building an international payment system to bypass the SWIFT network,

boosting Russia's national GDP, and so on. Journalists at the Dossier Center reported in August that the government's real interest in boosting wild berries is to make it more competitive across the Eurasian Economic Union by expanding its access to local warehouses. Vladislav Balkalchuk was against the deal from the start, but, as the bell explains, he has had a weak hand.

owning just 1% of Wildberries. Meanwhile, the company he actually controls, BV Development, faces multi-billion ruble fines for failure to meet contractual obligations. It's a complicated situation. Let's say the divorce between husband and wife, between partners, yeah, and it's a very complicated situation when Suleiman Kerimov came to this company and tried to repack and then sell to other parties, for example, yeah?

And his role is quite unique in Russia, but actually he's doing GR work. He is directly related to Dagestan and he could be named as a shadow head of Dagestan because he did a number of projects and charity projects and business projects in Dagestan and nothing happens without him in Dagestan. And that's why we can call him the shadow head.

geographically it has a border with Chechnya. And that's why there are a lot of tensions between these two regions from the 19th till today. And we are seeing these tensions, official tensions about the transfer of the border between these two regions and demarcation of the border and so on and so on. And there are plenty of examples of these conflicts between

people from both regions. And this conflict is not only about, let's say, this corporate structure like wildberries, but also about tension between regions because there are two North Caucasian clans who are trying to receive control and to seize this opportunity to control wildberries. And so you compared what's happening now with wildberries to what Kadymov did with this fertilizer company.

14 years ago, where he bought it and then sold it for more, essentially. He flipped it. So what exactly is his relation? I know that he's, like you said, he's doing GR work, government relations work, to basically help Tatiana Kim. Do you subscribe to the idea that she needed it because of the fire at the warehouse that then created police problems for her and regulatory problems? Or is there some other reason that she suddenly needed it?

GR work that actually required a merger that takes away some of her control over her own company. Yeah, there are two versions and two possible explanations of the involvement of Kerimov in this merging. The first is the official story is that there was a big fire in some storages related to Wildberries and that's why she needs some money or some support to handle this problem.

And the second one is actually it's about financial side of the business. And we are seeing that some of the shares of the current business, they're pledged to VTB bank. It's a big state-owned bank and the possible buyer of Wildberries, as I understand, for the further developments maybe, because VTB provided number of loans to Wildberries and

could be also the explanation about the necessity of involvement of Kerimov and his work with presidential administration. But exactly how does...

Suleiman Karimov benefit from this merger with Rus Outdoor? Because I know that the business, this outdoor billboard advertising company, which is big, but it's not as big as Wildberries. This is a discrepancy that a lot of people have drawn attention to saying, oh, well, this is why this merger is so suspicious. Rus Outdoor formerly belongs to the Mirazan brothers, as I understand it. And they claim that Karimov has no

technical relationship with the company. I think they have said that, you know, he's like a friend of the business, but maybe they haven't met him directly, which I guess is just they're lying, it seems. But can you explain for me how Kareemov actually benefits from this merger? I know that he's sort of he's doing the Wildberries, you know, business a favor, and I assume that that leads to all kinds of arrangements. But is there some kind of direct connection here that is monetary? Because it seems a little different to me than the project

purchase of the fertilizer company because that was him buying a business and then reselling it, whereas this is more complicated. It's more complicated. Kirimov has never appeared as a shareholder of the company. There are plenty of managers in his inner circle who are really doing these manager functions. And really, Mirzayan brothers, they're not the real shareholders. They're

There are some nominee shareholder who was previously a driver in this RusAudor who owns 50% shares of the Mirzayan brothers company RusAudor. It's funny thing here, but actually the driver, former driver, now he's a shareholder. Yeah, that's how it looks like from my perspective. Sorry, just so I understand, one of the Mirzayan brothers was a former driver or one of the shareholders? No, no, no.

another one guy who owns 50% of the company is a company named Steen. This company owns 35% of the newborn company that owned Wildberries now. And this 50% of this company belongs to Grigory Sadayan, who was driver in Rus Outdoor Company and other 50% belong to Mirsayan Brothers.

So this is just evidence that the whole ownership structure of Russator is a bunch of fronts. It's like we're not really seeing who... Yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. Roman. But Wildberries is... When we talk about Tatiana Kim, she's the real owner, right? She's not a... Yeah. She's nobody's driver.

no she's nobody's driver as well yeah okay and she owns 65 percent like as i said mirzayan kirim of this group this bunch of people own 35 of the newborn company and 65 percent belongs to the

So Tatiana Kim, she's still a major shareholder of this joint company. I mean, well, there's about 35 belong to Nazis Kirimov's group of people. Are the Mirzayan brothers anybody significant? Like, are they just good friends of Kirimov? Or they're like above drivers. They're not just somebody's drivers, but they're not the true power. They're not the real owners. So like, where would you place them between somebody's driver and Kirimov? It's tough to say yet.

Actually, they are real businessmen, as they are known in the Russian market as businessmen. But actually, of course, they received plenty of state contracts from the state organizations, state bodies, but because of Kerimov. And a number of sources in the market say that only because of Kerimov, they achieved this success and the company with a billion turnover. But I suppose they are, let's say, the minor partners of Kerimov.

and be having this peace just because Kirimov is somewhere nearby. That's my point about Mirzayan brothers. I had a question I meant to ask you before when we were talking about the actual shootout. What did Bakalchuk and his men intend? From your perspective, what did they hope to achieve? Because it seems a little bit strange to show up at... He shows up with a few guys...

and he tries to force his way into the office. In your mind, what was he hoping to achieve? Because I would imagine that even if they got in and locked the doors behind them, that doesn't then give them control over the business, I would think. What were they hoping to do? I think that there is only one explanation here. And actually, he was an equal partner with his wife during years in this business. But in the formal documents, in the papers, he has only 1% of the company.

And it looks like that he tried to influence the decision of the management to receive the other 49% of the shares. And this was his actual claim. He tried to, let's say, to receive the part of the company, like the 50%, as equal partner.

and Kadyrov's people think that he really owns this part and try to, let's say, to provide this sort of communication to counterparty. Does he have a legal claim to that through the divorce? No, no. I don't think that there is an option to prove this, let's say, equal parts because there is a formal document and only 1%. But number of sources on the market said that they were equal partner.

his wife, and they made a lot of, let's say, joint decisions. They were involved in the business management of the company, and that's it. But on the papers, he has only one percent. A quick clarification. Amid this whole scandal, Tatyana Kim has publicly stated several times that Vladislav Bakalchuk had no involvement in the development or management of Wildberries.

It seems to me as though, and I think I said this before, that Kadyrov's clan or his group, they lost this little fight here. Although I know that Kadyrov himself hasn't been called out or anything by Putin or by any police unit, but it seems as though this attempt to exert themselves didn't work. And so I wonder what this means for this particular clan battle over the wild bears, essentially. Look, there is no official meeting with Kadyrov.

Because every time when Kadyrov, let's say, appeared in some complicated situation, he tried to seize the opportunity and to be nearby Putin to show that he's still loyal and Putin would like to say some good words about him. Actually, that is not happening now. He's not somewhere nearby Putin and he didn't

appear still in the Kremlin as he appeared previously during such cases and such conflicts. And it means that he could be not the

person who lost the support from Putin, but maybe from presidential administration there are some tensions between Kadyrov and presidential administration and it means that this is a bad signal for him. I mean about future of Kadyrov. And I would like to step back just to mention Barakhoev. Barakhoev is the second person who involved in this conflict from Tatiana Kim's side.

because he is a State Duma deputy from Ingushetia. And he is also involved in this conflict because he worked for this Rus outdoor company for years and was a vice president of this company. And actually, he provides support and, let's say, this power support for Tatyana Kim. And it looks like he was deeply involved in handling this conflict because people who died, both guys, they were from Ingushetia.

And actually during the funerals there was a big delegation and a lot of people from Ingushetia region and from the elites of this region came to this funeral to show respect to these guys who died during this conflict.

And it means that there is not only Dagestan and Suleiman Kerimov, but also Ingushetia and Barakhoev involvement in this conflict. And it looks like this is two different regions, Ingushetia and Dagestan, who are trying to resist against Kadyrov and Chechen groups in Moscow.

Do you see that as like Tatyana Kim has outmaneuvered Kadyrov by going to the two republics that are outside Chechnya and she's encircled him? Or is that that Kadyrov's enemies are taking advantage of Tatyana Kim? Or it's mutually beneficial? Yeah, I don't have an answer on your question. But also considering about what it means. It's interesting because Nova Gazeta, I think, has a story where they describe Tatyana Kim as like

it's the first public slap in the face to kadir and it comes from a woman and you know it's a very nice headline it's like oh yeah like she and she is you know in many ways i'm not saying in all ways but in many ways she's kind of an inspiring figure because she's the richest woman in russia she built this business basically you know herself and she's i mean like a lot of billionaires have these exciting personality cults and she has one too so it's just kind of interesting to me you know who's getting played the worst or the best in this story

I know it's hard to say. It's hard to say, but actually, I would like to focus on the people who are backing her. And this is a member of parliament from Ingushetia and Suleiman Kerimov, actually the shadow governor of Dagestan. And that's why Novaya Gazeta could, let's say, public these statements, these hats about slapping Kadyrov from the lady, yeah? Because of this very, very big

big support from people from two northern Caucasian regions. That's my point. And then just briefly, how do you see this kind of raider takeover? Do you see this as becoming more frequent? This is a separate story, but we have to mention there is a process of nationalization in Russia. The changing of the shareholders of the companies and the government plays a great role here because it's seizing assets from the private shareholders into the

state ownership. And this is ongoing process. Let's say hundreds of companies privatized and then nationalized during this period of time, let's say several years. There is also a request from people who are loyal to Kremlin, but who are not involved in this process massively, like Kadyrov, Kirimov, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and other regions who sent the

the hundreds and thousands of people to Ukraine to fight for Russia, for Putin there. And they would like to claim some bonuses for themselves. I mean, the elites.

And this is a sort of providing these benefits from Kremlin to these guys, providing them opportunity to receive new assets on occupied territory and also in Russia because some of the Western business living in Russia, for example, Danone. Then the nephew of Kadyrov became the head of this company and he received control under this company.

And during this nationalization process, the right of property and property rights, they became very, very, they disappeared actually. Yeah. It's easy to come and to take control on every company because there is ongoing process of the changes in shareholders.

And from my personal point of view, Kadyrov and Kerimov, they're only, let's say, the top of the iceberg here. They're trying to struggle and to fight for these big assets like Wildberries. But there are plenty of medium enterprises and the big businesses, but outside of their Romanov Dvor and inner circle of, let's say, Kremlin, yeah, somewhere.

It means that there's a process of the raiding of these companies, an ongoing process. And hundreds of the companies in the regions of Russia, they're now in

in the process of raiding from these powerful groups. It's not only about Kadyrov, it's not only about Northern Caucasian class, but about the people with powerful connections. Mostly these guys who have these connections with FSB, Minister of Internal Affairs, Rosguardia, General Prosecutor's Office, and so on and so on.

Thanks for tuning in, folks. This has been The Naked Pravda, a podcast from Meduza in English. Remember that undesirable status back in Russia means our entire news outlet now relies on readers and listeners around the world to support our work. Please visit our website for information about how to become a contributor with one-time or recurring pledges. Thanks again. Until next week.