Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, has declared a blood feud against Suleiman Kerimov and two members of the Russian State Duma, Bekkhan Barakhoyev and Rizvan Kurbanov, over the situation with Wildberries, as reported by the Telegram channel Baza.
“This is a business situation. Bekkhan Barakhoev, Suliman Karimov and Rizvan Kurbanov are prominent businessmen. Not only are they attempting to take business away from Tatiana Kim, but they also allegedly tried to have me killed. I initially kept quiet about it, but now I am officially stating that I will declare a blood feud against Barakhoev, Karimov and Kurbanov if they do not prove to me that they are not involved in this,” Kadyrov said at a meeting with Chechen security forces.
On September 18, there was an incident near the Wildberries office in the Romanov Dvor business center in Moscow that ended in a shooting. About eight people were injured, and two security guards of the office later died because of wounds.
Chechen mixed martial arts fighters took part in the attack. The incident resulted from a conflict between marketplace co-founder Tatiana Bakalchuk (now Kim) and her ex-husband Vladislav Bakalchuk.
On July 23, Ramzan Kadyrov wrote in his Telegram Channel after a meeting with Vladislav Bakalchuk, expressing his concern about the ‘forcible takeover’ of Wildberries and attributing it to ‘several well-known Caucasians’.
Suleiman Kerimov has been a member of the Russian Federation Council from Dagestan since 2008. Forbes estimates the fortune of the businessman and his family to be $10.7 billion.
Bekkhan Barakhoev is a millionaire and a member of the State Duma from Ingushetia. From 2018 to 2021, he served as the vice president of CJSC Olimp, a subsidiary of the outdoor advertising operator Russ Outdoor, which later merged with Wildberries. In September, Barakhoev visited the families of the security guards who were killed in a shooting at the company’s Moscow office. Both of the security guards were Ingush. The deputy mentioned that he knew the deceased well, having worked with them at Russ Outdoor for several years.
Rizvan Kurbanov, a State Duma deputy from Dagestan, may have been involved in the conflict, but the extent of his involvement is unknown.
Kursiv Uzbekistan reports that Amazon won the race among foreign marketplaces by being the first to deliver a lunchbox bag to Tashkent. Wildberries, AliExpress and Ozon will compete for second place.
