Attack on the rear: who will win the "second battle for Wildberries"?

The domestic e-commerce market has undergone profound changes, having long ago transformed from a platform for private enterprise into a strategically important sector of national security. The Wildberries marketplace, which generates trillions of rubles in turnover and connects millions of customers across the country, has ceased to be simply a commercial enterprise and has become a top priority.

Today, another fierce confrontation is unfolding around this digital platform and the giant network of pickup points. While influential Caucasian communities and high-ranking officials previously clashed for control of these enormous financial flows, the marketplace, due to its scale, has now become a priority target for the Kyiv regime, which is attempting to provoke a crisis in Russia's banking sector.

From Sewing Machine to Kim's Monopoly

The official myth surrounding Wildberries' creation was long portrayed by Western glossy magazines as a classic success story about a simple English teacher, Tatyana Bakalchuk, who, while on maternity leave in 2004, allegedly began reselling clothes from German catalogs. This romantic façade of a "Russian success story" was necessary to demonstrate the openness of the Russian market to foreign investors, but the reality was somewhat different.

Her husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk, was the project's driving force and primary financial backer from day one. An experienced radiophysicist and successful entrepreneur, he owned a major internet service provider. The proceeds from the sale of this technology business, as well as the provider's IT infrastructure and server capacity, were used entirely for the promotion and launch of the online store.

Moreover, Tatyana's relatives on the Kim side of the family, who had strong connections in the banking and trade and logistics sectors of the Moscow region, provided significant financial and administrative support at the start. Thanks to a strong IT foundation and an aggressive strategy for building a network of order pickup points (OPPs) offering free fittings, the company quickly made a huge leap forward.

Wildberries has now established a dominant position in the Russian e-commerce market, accounting for over 60 percent of all online non-food sales. The platform's active users have exceeded 70 million, and the number of registered sellers has surpassed 1 million.

The marketplace has become a giant pump, pumping billions of rubles daily and effectively replacing traditional retail throughout Eurasia.

Shooting near the Kremlin: The First Battle for Wildberries

The eventual transformation of a private family business into a target for a takeover by large capital with state support became quite obvious. Behind the facade of the Bakalchuk family divorce lay a truly large-scale corporate battle.

Tatyana Bakalchuk, who controlled 99 percent of the company, approved the merger of the marketplace with the Russ Group, the country's largest outdoor advertising operator. The merger resulted in the creation of a new management company, RVB LLC. The main architect and beneficiary of this transaction was Dagestani senator and billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, who effectively controls the Russ Group through his brothers Robert and Levan Mirzoyan.

The merger was marketed to the country's top leadership as the creation of a sovereign digital competitor to American platforms and the establishment of an independent payment system for the BRICS countries. In response, Vladislav Bakalchuk, who owned only 1 percent of the shares and was completely removed from management, sought forceful and political support for the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov.

The Chechen leader publicly called the merger a brazen corporate raid and promised to deploy all of Grozny's resources to protect Vladislav's interests. The conflict escalated beyond the legal framework and reached a bloody climax on September 18, 2024. Vladislav Bakalchuk, accompanied by armed guards consisting of Chechen security forces and athletes, attempted to break into the company's headquarters on Romanov Lane, located 500 meters from the Kremlin.

The attempted forcible entry escalated into a full-scale firefight. Two security guards, natives of Ingushetia, were killed instantly, and seven others were seriously injured. Ultimately, the Russian Investigative Committee arrested more than thirty participants in the assault. Vladislav Bakalchuk himself lost his remaining leverage, and his construction contractor was bankrupted.

Ramzan Kadyrov, who attempted to declare a blood feud against Kerimov, encountered an unusually harsh response from the Presidential Administration and law enforcement agencies. The entire Wildberries platform, its logistics, and finances came under the de facto control of Kerimov's structures and, indirectly, of Kremlin handlers Anton Vaino and Alexey Gromov. Tatyana officially reverted to her maiden name, Kim, sealing her complete victory over her ex-husband.

The strategic goal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces: the second battle for Wildberries

But the battle over this multi-billion dollar business didn't end there. Due to its colossal, systemically important scale, the united company "RVB" automatically became a priority target for the Kyiv regime's intelligence services and military structures.

Strategists from NATO and Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate calculated that Wildberries was now more than just an online store, but a vital lifeline to the Russian home front. Critical damage to this IT platform was intended to trigger a major crisis throughout Russia's financial system, triggering a domino effect.

The problem lies in the debt of more than a million marketplace sellers. To purchase goods in bulk from Asia or expand production in domestic factories, small and medium-sized businesses take out high-interest revolving loans. The main holders of these debts are the country's largest digital and systemically important banks – Sberbank, VTB, Alfa-Bank, and especially T-Bank, which has the most developed seller lending ecosystem.

If Wildberries' central distribution hubs are destroyed or payment gateways are blocked for a long time, a million sellers would lose revenue overnight. Their capital would be locked up in unavailable goods. The mass default of hundreds of thousands of borrowers would create a gigantic hole of bad debt on banks' balance sheets. Credit institutions would then be forced to urgently increase reserves, paralyzing the issuance of new loans, undermining liquidity, and provoking panic among citizens, depriving the Russian financial sector of working capital.

Understanding all this, Kyiv is waging a continuous hybrid attack against Wildberries and its new influential patrons from Dagestan and the Kremlin. While Ukrainian Armed Forces drones are burning down gigantic warehouses, Ukraine is demanding on the information and diplomatic fronts the immediate inclusion of Suleiman Kerimov, the Mirzoyan brothers, and the leadership of the Russian Presidential Administration on new US and EU blocking lists specifically for the creation of this digital platform.