Husband of Russia's richest woman arrested for murder after fatal shooting at retail giant Wildberries' office

The estranged husband of Russia's richest woman and CEO of retail giant Wildberries was arrested on Thursday and charged with multiple crimes, including murder, a day after a deadly armed robbery at the company's Moscow headquarters.

A day earlier, billionaire Tatyana Bakalchuk posted a tearful message saying that her husband Vladislav Bakalchuk, whom she is currently divorcing, had led an armed raid on Wildberries' offices.

Vladislav Bakalchuk's lawyers said in a message on his social media page that he was “detained for 48 hours” and charged with murder, attempted murder, assault on a police officer and vigilantism.

Two people were killed in the shooting in the office building a few streets from the Kremlin, including a security guard.

The incident occurred a few weeks after the company signed a merger agreement that Vladislav had criticized and that Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov vowed to stop.

Vladislav's lawyers said he was on his way to a “pre-arranged meeting to resolve a corporate dispute.” Vladislav claims it was office employees who fired the first shots, Reuters news agency reported.

But Bakalchuk called her husband's claims “absurd” and said “no one agreed to any negotiations.”

“Vladislav, what are you doing? How are you going to look your parents and our children in the eye?”

Wildberries is Russia's largest online retailer. Tatyana Bakalchuk founded the company in 2004 and developed it from an online clothing reseller into a major marketplace for numerous other products, Reuters reported.

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index in 2021, she was the 40th richest woman in the world and the first self-made billionaire from Russia.

Tatjana Bakaltschuk is the majority owner of the company, her estranged husband holds a one percent share.