Attacks on Wildberries create new problems for Putin rule; dictator is in a panic
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Two years ago, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin backed plans to transform Wildberries into a global e-commerce giant capable of competing with Western companies. Now, Ukrainian drones are attacking the Russian marketplace's facilities in an attempt to deal a further blow to the Russian economy, according to The Wall Street Journal .
As the publication notes, Moscow-based Wildberries sits at the intersection of business and government in Russia. The Ukrainian attacks against it exemplify how closely the company's fate has become intertwined with the state.
As part of the campaign against Wildberries, Ukraine has so far struck nearly two dozen of its warehouses. The near-daily attacks have reached Russia's Ural region, more than 1,600 km from the front line. "A recent attack on one of its warehouses—one of the largest such facilities in Russia—left behind a smoldering ruin roughly the size of New York's Grand Central Station. Kyiv, which is also targeting oil and gas infrastructure deep in Russia, claimed that the sale of military equipment through Wildberries makes the company a legitimate target," the article states.
Data Insight, an online retail research company, estimates that online retailers using the Wildberries platform to sell everything from televisions to sneakers have lost up to $5 billion worth of merchandise since the attacks began.
"The fate of Wildberries, which owes over $10 billion to Russian banks, remains uncertain. Plans for financial assistance are currently being discussed, which could trigger a chain reaction throughout the banking sector," the WSJ notes. Although the Wildberries website continues to operate without interruption, the Kremlin has already begun discussing what to do if the strikes continue to cause damage to the Russian economy on the scale of Wildberries.
"For the Kremlin, Wildberries was supposed to be a symbol of Russian ingenuity and resilience, despite Western sanctions. However, the company's history illustrates the harsh realities of the Russian business environment, dominated by Putin's desire to limit control over the economic drivers to a circle of businessmen loyal to him," the publication writes.
Wildberries tripled its headcount last year, according to people familiar with the matter, and at one point officials considered using the platform as a payment system to circumvent Western restrictions on Russia's use of the SWIFT messaging system, which links financial institutions around the world.
"Wildberries is a strategic asset because it's a large, profitable business. Its development coincided with plans for life in a system isolated from the West," noted Konstantin Sonin, a professor at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. Wildberries began as a family business in 2004 and subsequently became Russia's largest online retailer. As the company grew, it increasingly attracted the attention of Kremlin-connected businessmen.
In 2024, a conflict over the future of Wildberries between Tatyana Kim and her husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk, culminated in a shootout near the company's headquarters. Wildberries subsequently announced a merger with one of the largest outdoor advertising companies, backed by oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.
According to the publication's sources, Vladimir Putin approved the deal, and he instructed former Minister of Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin to oversee the company's development.
In 2025, Wildberries also launched an online sales department for body armor, helmets, and other military equipment, called "Everything for the SVO." This department is no longer available on the website. Since the attacks began, Ukrainian strikes have affected over 1 million square meters of Wildberries warehouse space, according to Data Insight analyst Sergey Semko. He said the company initially offered to compensate sellers for losses in some cases, but did not allow them to retrieve goods from the warehouses.
"If sales collapse completely, it will certainly be bad for everyone. The situation, where warehouses are collapsing one after another, shows that this strategy was fundamentally flawed," he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the government is in talks with Wildberries about state support following the strikes, but no decision has yet been made.
State-owned Sberbank and VTB, which invested the most in Wildberries, will likely find a way to save the company or reduce its debt burden, sources told the publication. Meanwhile, smaller banks that provide loans to individual sellers may not have such resources.
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