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A fight broke out at the head office of Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, killing at least two people and injuring seven others, Russian state-controlled news agency TASS reported on Sept. 18.
The number of casualties rose after earlier reports said that one had been killed and two injured.
Videos emerged on Telegram on the afternoon of Sept. 18 that showed shots ringing out as a group of men scuffled at the entrance of an office building, purportedly part of the Wildberries headquarters in central Moscow.
Wildberries' press service said that the fight broke out when Vladislav Bakalchuk, the estranged husband of the company's founder, tried to "illegally" enter the building with his security guards.
A representative of Vladislav Bakalchuk told Russian news outlet RBK that the businessman had become the victim of a "large-scale provocation" after arriving for negotiations on the construction of warehouses for the retailer on behalf of his company, VB Development.
The company's founder, Tatyana Bakalchuk, said that Bakalchuk had attempted to seize the offices together with another co-founder, Sergey Anufriev, and former chairman of the board of directors, Vladimir Bakin, Russian independent media outlet Meduza reported.
"The statement about alleged negotiations, to which an armed group arrived, sounds absurd, since no one agreed on any negotiations," Tetyana Bakalchuk said.
"This is a hostile takeover. Or rather, an unsuccessful attempt," she said.
Tetyana reportedly filed for divorce from her husband in July.
Russia's Investigative Committee later said it had opened an investigation into the incident, and Vladislav Bakalchuk's official Telegram channel confirmed that he had been summoned for questioning.
The independent Russian media outlet Agentstvo reported that three of the gunmen who reportedly accompanied Vladislav Bakalchuk into the Wildberries headquarters and subsequently injured were well-known MMA fighters from the North Caucasus. One of the men allegedly trained at Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov's Akhmat fighting club.
Elsa Court
