Russian court approves scandal-hit Wildberries merger

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A Russian court has upheld a scandal-plagued merger involving the country’s largest online retailer, potentially ending a bitter feud between an estranged couple who founded a business that drew on the Kremlin and a Chechen warlord.

The dispute was sparked by Tatyana Kim’s decision last year to merge retailer Wildberry with Billboard advertising group Russ Outdoor. In an apparent escalation of tensions, two people were killed and seven wounded in a shooting outside Wildberry’s headquarters in September.

Kim’s co-founder Vladislav Bakalchuk asked the court to void the deal that would have transferred Wildberry’s assets to RWB — the entity created by the merger — claiming it was intended to harm him and Wildberry.

Kim, who said last summer that she had filed for divorce from Bakalchuk, was featured in the local edition of Forbes RussiaIts richest woman with an estimated fortune of $7.4 billion before the dispute.

The merger will give Russ Outdoor a 35 percent stake in the joint venture even though its sales are a fraction of Wildberry’s.

The court ruled Friday that “no evidence was presented that these transactions caused harm or were intended to harm Wildberry and the plaintiff,” according to a court document cited by Russian news agency RIA.

Bakalchuk, who holds a 1 percent stake in Wildberry, said on his Telegram channel that the ruling was “offensive, illegal and completely unsatisfactory” and that he planned to appeal.

In July 2024, the Kremlin said the merger had received the approval of President Vladimir Putin, while Kim and Russia’s Robert Mirzoyan wrote to him claiming the deal could create “the largest digital banking network and payment system for ruble settlements worldwide”, potentially reaching 5.8 billion customers. to reach

Bakalchuk then shocked the Russian public by calling on Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov to help block the deal.

Kadyrov pledged his support after Bakalchuk, who he said was an old friend, addressed the Chechen leader in a video posted on social media, lamenting that Kim had tried to force him out of the company.

Weeks later, Bakalchuk and his associates were involved in a shootout at Wildberry’s headquarters, which left two security guards dead, according to media reports. Bakalchuk was subsequently arrested on multiple criminal charges, including murder. He was later released and said he was not charged.

Dozens of other people, including several mixed martial artists linked to Kadyrov and the deputy head of the Chechen National Guard unit, have reportedly been jailed awaiting trial for the shooting.

Western sanctions have fueled a brutal scramble for wealth among Russia’s elites, not seen since the 1990s scramble for business after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Wildberry, which Kim and Bakalchuk founded in 2004, has grown over the past two decades from an online women’s clothing retailer to Russia’s second-largest technology company, selling everything from cars to Western appliances brought into the country through parallel imports.