A Moscow court awarded Tatiana Kim, Russia’s wealthiest woman, her ex-husband Vladislav Bakalchuk’s remaining stake in the country’s largest online retailer Wildberries, the company’s press service told state media Thursday.
Kim and Bakalchuk finalized their divorce in February following a surprise merger with outdoor advertising firm Russ Group last summer. The merger sparked a bitter corporate and personal dispute involving Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and culminated in a deadly shootout at the company’s headquarters in September.
Moscow’s Savyolovsky District Court ordered Bakalchuk to hand over his 1% stake in Wildberries LLC to Kim, according to the company Wildberries Russ.
“Tatiana Kim became the 100% owner of the company,” Wildberries Russ was quoted as saying. The court also upheld Kim’s ownership of Wildberries Bank and the funds in her personal accounts, the state-run news agency TASS reported.
President Vladimir Putin approved the June 2024 merger between Wildberries and Russ Group, but the Kremlin declined to intervene in the high-profile family feud between the co-founders of Wildberries.
Wildberries and Russ Group claimed their merger would create a financial, media and retail conglomerate capable of rivaling Western tech giants and supporting the Russian economy.
However, some Russian business outlets have described the merger as “strange,” framing it as part of a broader power struggle between Kadyrov and powerful billionaire senator Suleiman Kerimov.
Last fall, Kadyrov declared a “blood feud” against three lawmakers from neighboring North Caucasus republics, accusing them of engineering the merger and plotting to assassinate him.
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