Russia’s richest woman announces divorce amid ‘raider’ scandal

Reports of a corporate raid on e-commerce giant Wildberries are not true, the founder and chief executive of Russia’s largest online retailer Tatyana Bakalchuk has said.

The businesswoman took to Telegram on Tuesday to deny a claim by her husband Vladislav Bakalchuk about an attempted illegal takeover of the family business, revealing that the two were divorcing.

Earlier in the day, the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov posted a video of a conversation with Vladislav Bakalchuk, who claimed that advertising company Russ Outdoor was illegally attempting to take over the assets of Wildberries.

He claimed that Russ Outdoor's owners – brothers Levon and Robert Mirzoyan – deceived his wife, who subsequently ex-communicated herself from the family.

“This is not a gangster-style takeover. This is a divorce,” Tatyana Bakalchuk wrote in response to her husband’s statement, noting that “From the very beginning, everything was agreed upon with Vladislav.”

She added that her husband “personally attended the presentation of the new structure of the merged company to the top management,” posting a photo of Vladislav sitting next to her at a meeting as a “proof.”

According to newspaper Vedomosti, Wildberries merged with Russ Outdoor in June. Bakalchuk later confirmed that she would head the united group of companies.

On July 22, Russ Outdoor announced that the companies were setting up a single media department.

Kadyrov, for his part, has claimed that he could not “stay away from a large-scale fraud” and will do “everything possible” to help bring Tatyana Bakalchuk back to the family and “protect legitimate business.” 

A former English teacher and a mother of seven, Bakalchuk launched her e-commerce business in 2004. Her fortune amounts to $7.4 billion, according to Forbes, which ranks the Wildberries CEO as the richest woman in Russia.