Wildberries have reached the corpses ---- Since July, a conflict has
been developing in Russia for control over the "Russian Amazon" - theWildberries company. This is a huge corporation, it occupies a
significant part of the online ordering market in Russia. In 2023,
Wildberries' turnover amounted to 538 billion rubles, in the spring of
2024, Wildberries took ninth place in the world in terms of the number
of visitors among online trading platforms. Wildberries was created by a
married couple, Tatyana and Vladislav Bakalchuk. In addition to building
the largest private company in Russia, they managed to raise seven children.
But something went wrong with the family idyll, Tatyana left Vladislav,
and also initiated a rather strange deal to merge Wildberries with Russ
Outdoor, a well-known outdoor advertising operator, but a company tens
of times smaller in resources than Wildberries. The alleged beneficiary
of this deal is the Dagestani oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.
Tatyana was able to initiate the merger with Russ Outdoor because 99% of
the family business is registered to her, and 1% to Vladislav.
Vladislav's position is that he and Tatyana created Wildberries
together, 99 and 1% - it was some kind of scheme necessary for the
business, and if there is a divorce, Vladislav wants to divide the
family business 50/50. It seems like a completely understandable demand,
go to court and get your share.
But Vladislav Bakalchuk initiated a rather strange campaign of public
pressure and PR against his still-wife. As part of this campaign, Ramzan
Kadyrov recorded a video demanding "to return the wife to the family"
and cancel the merger with Russ Outdoor. To this, Tatyana Bakalchuk, the
richest businesswoman in Russia, said that she was "not a Caucasian
captive, and there was no need to save her."
On September 18, Vladislav Bakalchuk showed up at the Wildberries
office, located right across from the Kremlin, with a delegation of
strong Chechen men. Earlier, Tatyana had cancelled Vladislav's work
pass, and, according to him, he could not have gotten into the company's
office any other way. According to unconfirmed information, Tatyana's
men at the Wildberries office were criminal authority Zakhariy Kalashov
("Shakro Molodoy"), who had just recently been released from prison
after a shootout with dead bodies in Moscow in 2016.
Who started it first, Kadyrov's men or Shakro's men, is yet to be
determined by the investigation. Judging by the video on the Internet,
at some point one of the Kadyrov's men began to smash the glass door
with a telescopic baton, and shots were fired. The collision resulted in
fatalities and a criminal case. A real showdown in the spirit of the
raiders of the 90s, right opposite the Kremlin, in the 24th year of
Putin's "dictatorship of the law".
What is interesting in all this for anarchists? Almost all Russian
business of the 90s is roughly the characters of the TV series "The Word
of a Boy", who seized the remnants of Soviet industry or some other
infrastructure in time. Nouveau riche, who did not create anything
useful for people at all. Wildberries and several other new Russian
corporations are positioned as a new generation business. That,
supposedly, ordinary people created huge companies from scratch that do
something useful.
But Wildberries is known for setting very manipulative conditions for
people trying to sell something through it. Wildberries is also known as
a company that has never bothered to create good working conditions for
its employees - see reviews of Wildberries on Antijob. Now we see that
Wildberries exists in the universe of "The Word of the Boy" together
with Kadyrov, Kerimov and Kalashov. This is not a new generation
business with a human face. Property is theft, as Grandpa Proudhon
explained.
They will find you for a tweet in Argentina
Since September 12, a fierce scandal in the "style of the 90s" has been
developing among the Russian opposition, which is currently forced to
exist in relocation. Supporters of Alexei Navalny published an
investigation that the former Russian and now Israeli oligarch Leonid
Nevzlin is behind a series of attacks on Russian oppositionists abroad.
Nevzlin is one of the founders of YUKOS, in 2003 he was forced to leave
Russia, in 2008 in Russia he was sentenced in absentia to life
imprisonment on charges of complicity in murders. Nevzlin is Mikhail
Khodorkovsky's closest friend. Nevzlin claims that he has nothing to do
with Russian politics anymore, and only helps Ukraine defend itself
against Russian aggression. In reality, Nevzlin continues to give money
to a number of Russian opposition projects, and visits Russian
opposition forums.
According to Navalny supporters, Nevzlin, for example, sent some thugs
all the way to Argentina after a dispute with some relocate on Twitter.
The thugs attacked the wife of his online opponent when she was walking
down the street with a stroller with a small child.
Judging by the investigation, what infuriated Nevzlin about Navalny
supporters was that they did not recognize Khodorkovsky's supremacy over
them. (It is unclear to what extent Khodorkovsky was aware of this
violent activity, but more likely no than yes).
The Navalny supporters accuse Nevzlin of ordering the brutal beating of
their leader Leonid Volkov, and even negotiating with the St. Petersburg
FSB about his forced removal from Lithuania to Russia.
The accusations are shocking, but they seem quite plausible. This has
caused a heated showdown in the ranks of the liberal Russian opposition.
Largely because Khodorkovsky and Nevzlin are among the main financial
donors of Russian liberals, and if they are "unsubscribed from the
movement," many will be left without salaries. On the other hand, the
accusations against Nevzlin are not 100% confirmed, and the Navalny
supporters are being scolded for making publicly available information
that is not fully verified, and was also leaked to them by a person who
is clearly working for the FSB.
It seems that arrests are taking place in Poland in connection with the
attack on Volkov, and Russian liberals are clinging to European cops as
if they were the last straw that could save their world. They say that
the European Union is not Russia, let the investigation and the court
figure it out.
But these hopes seem exaggerated. If the European cops really confirm
Nevzlin's connection with the assassination attempt on Volkov...
Nevzlin's daughter is married to an influential member of the Israeli
parliament of many convocations. Nevzlin has large assets in the Israeli
media, etc.
In Russia, Nevzlin was sentenced in absentia to life in prison in 2008,
when Russia was not yet a pariah state. And if Nevzlin was not handed
over to Russia then, it is unclear why Israel would now hand him over to
Poland or Lithuania on lesser suspicions.
"Nevzlingate" is setting Russian liberals at odds with each other,
pushing into the indefinite future the liberals' desire to create some
kind of authoritative institution of Russians in relocation, which
Western politicians would take into account. I don't want to gloat over
this situation, but "Nevzlingate" is also an opportunity for anarchists
to become active among Russian relocates: against the backdrop of the
fact that the traditional opposition structure is collapsing.
Solidarity in the face of disaster
In conclusion, I want to recommend the cool 2023 Netflix feature
miniseries "Railroaders: The Untold Story of the Bhopal Disaster." The
film is based on the real events of 1984, when a toxic gas leak occurred
at a chemical plant of the international corporation Union Carbide in India.
Tens of thousands of people died or lost their health because the
corporation ignored safety requirements in pursuit of profit. Despite
the huge number of deaths, Union Carbide managed to avoid lengthy prison
terms for its managers.
And when the disaster happened, the authorities initially interfered
rather than helped save people. And good old human solidarity and mutual
assistance helped the Indians out in the most difficult moments.
Well, that's all for today! We remind you that in "Trends of Order and
Chaos" the participants of Autonomous Action and other authors give
anarchist assessments of current events. Listen to us on YouTube,
SoundCloud and other platforms, visit our website avtonom.org, subscribe
to our social networks and e-mail newsletter.
The issue was prepared by Listyev
Support the work of Autonomous Action
https://avtonom.org/news/nastoyashchie-90-e-trendy-poryadka-i-haosa-epizod-176
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