Before the smoke had cleared from the ashes in Shushary, Wildberries received carte blanche to build a new, even larger warehouse in the Leningrad region. What caused such sudden favor on the part of Governor Drozdenko towards the marketplace, the editors of Kompromat.group found out.
Embers of scandal
Online shopping with delivery has become an integral part of modern life. But despite the demand for the service, we note that “Wild Berries” get into public scandals with enviable frequency and attract the attention of law enforcement agencies.
Suffice it to recall the wave of complaints, and even the physical confrontation of entrepreneurs-owners of delivery points, against the new line of fines, numerous write-offs in favor of the aggregator. Ordinary buyers were also indignant at what they considered to be insane fines for returning goods, damaged items, and outright counterfeit goods. Streams of complaints also came from employees about the harsh working conditions and humiliating stripping for the inspection procedure.
All this happened with varying success during 2022-2023. The new year 2024 was marked by a huge fire. The marketplace warehouse in Shushary, in the Pushkinsky district of St. Petersburg, covering an area of about 100 thousand square meters, was completely destroyed by fire.
It burned so powerfully that the smoke from the fire was observed not only by residents of the Northern capital, but also by passengers of planes landing at Pulkovo. Moreover, the fire itself and the events preceding it also turned out to be riddled with a thread of scandal.
On the eve of the fire, a mass fight of migrants took place near the warehouse. An Azerbaijani citizen was wounded in the massacre; he was taken to the hospital with stab wounds. The attacker, also a migrant (from Tajikistan), was also taken away, but to the police station. The fight gave impetus to the following components of the whole story; the next day security forces raided the warehouse. They were looking for violators of immigration laws.
On January 12, as luck would have it, a pipe burst in the goods receiving area and the entire room was flooded. Then, the very next day in the morning, pallets with household chemicals caught fire in the first block of the warehouse, on the racks of the sixth level. Then chaos began, which almost ended in human casualties, because the guards fought to the death. (Even in a life-threatening situation, she demanded employees to undress). As a result, when the fire raged with all its might, the crowd swept away all obstacles in its path, including the guards. Many telegram channels wrote that when escaping from the fire, crowds of frightened people trampled someone, but the marketplace’s PR services and law enforcement agencies have so far remained silent on this matter.
That’s it, it’s burned out, sir!
The footage from the fire scene was depressing. There was nothing left of the huge warehouse. Literally – nothing but firebrands. As a result, the building where shipped almost 9% of all marketplace orders burned out almost completely. At the request of the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexandra Bastrykina, the St. Petersburg Investigative Committee immediately opened a criminal case. Based on the fact of what happened and under Part 1 of Art. 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) – abuse of power.
According to the investigation, the fire occurred as a result of abuse of power by unidentified persons, that is, managers whose functions were directly related to overseeing compliance with fire safety rules in the warehouse at Wildberry LLC.
Investigate and answer the main question “who is to blame?” there is something to this situation. A couple of days after the fire, a statement was made by the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for St. Petersburg. The rescue office said that no one checked the safety standards at the warehouse in Shushary because the premises did not have the main document – permission to put it into operation.
This fact, of course, “added” spice to the scandalous story. Moreover, a little earlier, in the wake of the fire, Gosstroynadzor stated that the warehouse complex, of all the required papers, only had a conclusion of compliance (AOC). At the same time, Wildberries informed media representatives that the burnt warehouse complied with safety requirements. Although in fact, the conclusion of compliance, as it turned out, is not a document allowing the operation of the facility. To do this, it is necessary to obtain a commissioning permit (RNV), the State Construction Supervision Authority, in fact, declared that the burnt warehouse did not have it. The absence of this piece of paper, meanwhile, is already quite an administrative matter. Part 5 art. 9.5 Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country).
To the numerous oddities in this story, there is also the fact that the owner of Wldberries Tatiana Bakalchuk, a businesswoman with a fortune of $13 billion, turned out to be a surprisingly happy-go-lucky person. Most likely, its structures will not be able to receive any compensation, because the burned warehouse was not insured, and moreover, could not be insured as a real estate property. All due to the lack of the above documents.
Last week, Bakalchuk had to testify at the Main Investigative Directorate of the Russian Investigative Committee for St. Petersburg. The press service of the billionaire tactically emphasized that “everything is calm in Baghdad,” and the leader is providing every possible assistance to the investigation. Meanwhile, completely different information flashed across the Internet – searches were carried out in the house of Bakalchuk and her businessman husband. The PR people of the owner of Wildberries were quick to issue a refutation, but this caused great joy and merriment in the entire trading community.
Readers wrote sarcastically that in such high-profile cases, “the Investigative Committee cannot do without searches.”
The area of the entire Wildberries warehouse in Shushary was 112 thousand square meters. m, 3 billion rubles were invested in it in 2021. At that time, the complex was called the largest in the region.
Business is business
Needless to say, the atmosphere around Bakalchuk and her “Wild Berries” is not the most positive. Experts have previously assessed the damage from the fire in 10 billion rubles. But how much more will sellers have to pay for lost goods? This figure could reach 15 billion
However, Ms. Bakalchuk’s ability to come out unscathed is, as they say, stunning. The ashes of the fire had not yet cooled, the investigation had not yet drawn conclusions, when she concluded an agreement with the governor of the Leningrad region on the construction of a new Wildberries distribution center.
The project is estimated at 9.5 billion rubles. The governor supported this initiative, because it would be a complete benefit and profit for him – 7.5 thousand jobs would appear. Huge warehouses will appear in the Tosnensky district of the Leningrad region, in the urban settlement of Krasny Bor. The complex will be equipped with multi-level metal structures to accommodate goods and they promise to create some kind of project for the employment of disabled people.
What is surprising now is not even the speed with which the country’s richest businesswoman reoriented herself in the situation, but the fact that in St. Petersburg the warehouse operated practically without permits, and many knew about this. In fact, this is not the first time that problems with documents have been discovered during the construction of a Wildberries warehouse. In September 2023, the authorities of Yekaterinburg filed a lawsuit against the company for starting construction work before receiving permission to build a warehouse.
Now, it would be reasonable to ask the question: will the work of the warehouse in Tosno be built according to the same scheme?
Of course, the conclusions of the Investigative Committee will also be interesting, but since the examination is not a quick matter, the nearest results of the investigation should be expected no earlier than in six months. But as knowledgeable people say, whatever the conclusions, Bakalchuk’s business is not in danger.
The production capacity of the new warehouse in the Tosnensky district for warehousing and storage will exceed 13.8 million units per year, cargo transport processing – 115.09 million units per year.