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PaperclipPerfector
2mo ago
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Transnational Thursday for September 19, 2024
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Some spicy news from Russia, straight from the 90's. First, some backstory:
Wildberries is the biggest internet marketplace in Russia. It was founded back in 2004 when the owner of a medium-sized internet provider, Vladislav Bakalchuk, agreed to help his wife Tatiana start her own business because she was tired of sitting at home with the kids. The new business soon outgrew his old one and by 2024 their purple signs could be found in every Russian town. Like all modern companies, it tried to own nothing: other companies sold goods via their website, all these signs pointed to delivery endpoints owned by independent franchisees. The only thing they had to own were the logistics, as there was simply no other company able to process so many orders. Vladislav owned the property management company while Tatiana owned the retailer itself.
In January 2024 one of the largest Wildberries warehouses caught fire and burnt down. It was a massive blow to the company, as even though it owned nothing, it still owed money to the companies whose were destroyed by the fire. In addition, as it always happens, the fire uncovered some irregularities in how the warehouse was managed, who exactly declared it fire safe, the legal status of the warehouse workers etc.
Now we're entering into the realm of rumours and speculation. Reportedly, Tatiana started looking for someone who was willing to spot her a few hundred million to cover her losses and also solve the criminal aspect of the whole fire-related mishap. That someone turned out to be Suleiman Kerimov, an old fox who made his money in the 90's and 00's and is now the senator from Dagestan.
In June 2024 two major announcements were made: Wilberries announced its merger with Russ Outdoor, the largest outdoor advertising company in Russia (formerly Murdoch's News Outdoor), Tatiana would get 65% of the new company while the owners of Russ would get 35%. Everyone was shocked, since being the largest outdoor advertising company in Russia is nothing compared to being the largest internet retailer. Even Vladislav was shocked, but he was even more shocked when Tatiana announced she was divorcing him.
More rumours and speculation: Russ Outdoor is a private company nominally owned by Grigoriy Sadoyan, but sources say its CEO Robert Mirzoyan is affiliated with aforementioned Kerimov. There were also rumours that Tatiana fell in love with Robert, but I consider them astroturfing to explain why the deal was so unequal. More likely, a part of the plan was saddling Vladislav with all liabilities related to the fire, both civic and criminal, and then helping him in exchange for a more Tatiana-friendly partition of their shared property.
And now we're getting closer and closer to the present day. With Tatiana having found a patron, Vladislav decided that he needed one as well. And he found one in the face of Ramzan Kadyrov, who recorded a video with Vladislav, promising to reunite him with his family and save their business from meddlesome crooks.
On the 18th of September Vladislav, accompanied by his new Chechen attorney and Chechen hired muscle (various champion wrestlers, boxers and karatists) tried to enter the offices of Wildberries to ostensibly discuss the contract for new warehouses. The security wouldn't let them in, some glass was broken, some shots were fired, two security guards ended up dead, police detained everyone, didn't charge Vladislav with anything yet.
Now it turns out the security guards were Ingush, and since the two republics have no love left for each other since 2018, when Kadyrov managed to redraw the border between the republics in his favour, there's a real possibility of a vendetta.
The lesson of the story is that beyond the gloss of modern technology and internet unicorns you still have the same old Russian business with shady Caucasian fixers holding the real power and business deals being accompanied by gunshots and gym rats.
Russian Jeff bezos linked up with an Islamist mma fighter alien contactee, in the middle of a messy divorce, and now his wife’s hill folk thugs are fighting his in an office building.
Did not have that on my bingo card.
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