A huge scandal has broken out in Russia: Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, at a meeting with his security forces, declared a blood feud and threatened to kill three federal parliamentarians: the billionaire senator from Dagestan Suleiman Kerimov and two United Russia members – State Duma deputies from Ingushetia. And he effectively challenged Vladimir Putin, threatening to liquidate his “wallet”. Will the Russian dictator swallow such humiliation, or will Kadyrov suffer the same fate as Prigozhin?

There’s big money at stake

The conflict between Ramzan Kadyrov and oligarch Suleiman Kerimov arose over the division of the largest Russian marketplace Wildberries with a gigantic revenue of almost 539 billion rubles (as of the end of 2023).

Kadyrov protected WB for many years, but lost control of it after the divorce of its owners, one of the richest couples in Russia – Tatyana (she has now returned to her maiden name Kim) and Vladislav Bakalchuk.

Tatyana Kim and Vladislav Bakalchuk.

According to Russian opposition media, Kadyrov’s functions have now been transferred to the Mirzoyan brothers, who act in the interests of the Russ group. The youngest of them, Levan, has become the new chosen one of Tatyana Kim-Bakalchuk.

“He is known for his connections with Ingush “fixers”, and was a long-time business partner of the former president of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev. It was on his initiative that the office security was replaced with Ingush security – in order to minimize the risks associated with the personal friendship of Bakalchuk and Kadyrov,” the journalists said.

In mid-June, Wildberries and Russ, Russia’s largest outdoor advertising operator, announced “a merger to create a digital trading platform.”

The deal was supported by Vladimir Putin. He liked Tatyana Kim’s “grandiose” plan: “The merger of the companies will create a strong competitor to such global corporations as Amazon, Alphabet, Alibaba and SoftBank, as well as the largest digital banking network and payment system for settlements in rubles around the world, bypassing SWIFT. The geography of the strategic project will cover Russia, the CIS countries and the Global South.”

But the intervention of the authorities eventually led to a showdown. As a result of the shooting in the very center of Moscow, 400 meters from the Kremlin, two security guards were killed, and seven more people were wounded, including two police officers.

People died as a result of showdowns in the center of Moscow. Source: Russian media

The co-owner of the marketplace, Vladislav Bakalchuk, was charged with serious crimes (including murder), and about 30 “militants” who supported him were detained and sent to pretrial detention. Among those arrested were Kadyrov’s people : for example, the deputy commander of the Chechen OMON company “Akhmat-1” Umar Chichaev.

Thus, in the conflict for Wildberries, on one side came together – Ramzan Kadyrov, who supports Vladislav Bakalchuk, and on the other – Senator Suleiman Kerimov and Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation Anton Vaino, who are on the side of Tatyana Kim. Chechens on one side, Ingush and Dagestanis on the other. The main beneficiary of the redistribution was Suleiman Kerimov: he is the ultimate owner of the Russ group, with which Wildberries merged.

Russian senator, billionaire Suleiman Kerimov.

Humiliation of Kadyrov

Ramzan Kadyrov has achieved nothing. The Bakalchuk family, despite the attempts of the head of Chechnya to reconcile the spouses, has finally fallen apart. Dozens of Kadyrov’s people are in pretrial detention. Wildberries remains under the control of Tatyana Kim. Vladislav Bakalchuk was actually accused of attempting a corporate raid. And that means a humiliating slap in the face for Ramzan Kadyrov.

On October 9, at a public meeting with Chechen security officials, a video of which was posted on Ramzan Kadyrov’s Telegram channel, he accused Dagestan senator and billionaire Suleiman Kerimov and two Russian State Duma deputies, Bekkhan Barakhoev and Rizvan Kurbanov, of attempting to organize an assassination attempt on him, amid a conflict related to the Wildberries company. Kadyrov said that if politicians fail to refute his accusations, he will begin a blood feud.

“I officially declare that I declare blood feud, unless they prove otherwise, against Barakhoev, Suleiman Kerimov, Rizvan Kurbanov. Because I am a Caucasian, I am a Chechen, I am returning my own home. There are witnesses who will prove that they ordered my murder,” Kadyrov said in Chechen.

Kadyrov declared blood feud during the meeting.

An unprecedented scandal broke out in Russia after this. In fact, a representative of the executive branch openly threatened to kill legislators. This has never happened in the history of the Russian Federation.

“What bizarre forms the principle of separation of powers takes in Putin’s Russia. And you can’t argue with that. Murder is the highest form of separation,” Putin’s former speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov wrote ironically on his Telegram channel.

Chechen activist and oppositionist Musa Lomayev said that Kadyrov had previously acted differently.

“Usually, Ramzan Kadyrov would say in a narrow circle what he (now. – Ed.) publicly said at the next plenary session. Then they would find out how this or that person was killed, and then for a long time the investigative bodies of the Russian Federation would look for the customers and not solve the case. But now we see a completely different situation. We see that Ramzan Kadyrov (openly. – Ed.) says it like it is. That is, he has moved from a private conversation to an official one,” Musa Lomayev shared.

According to him, Kadyrov previously entrusted such showdowns to his close ally, Russian State Duma deputy Adam Delimkhanov. “Delimkhanov usually handled such cases concerning Moscow and Russian regions. And he decided who to kill, who to intimidate, or who to maim. And today Kadyrov is personally handling all of this… The Wildberries case has reached such a level that Kadyrov has to be personally present in all of this and furiously declare blood feud,” the Chechen activist believes.

Kadyrov had previously trusted his close associate, Russian State Duma deputy Adam Delimkhanov, to sort things out.

Moreover, Lomaev does not rule out that this is connected with the decline of Kadyrov’s authority due to the failures of his subordinates in the war with Ukraine : “They have not distinguished themselves by anything other than a shameful flight.”

Kill cannot be pardoned

The Russian Criminal Code includes an article on threats to kill, and among the aggravating circumstances is the use of the Internet and official position. Both of these fit the situation with Kadyrov.

If the court had found that he had indeed threatened to kill Kerimov and two State Duma deputies and that they “had reason to fear that this threat would be carried out,” Kadyrov would have faced up to five years in prison or forced labor for the same period. However, on the third day after the publication of the video with the “blood feud,” a criminal case against him was still not opened. And now many in Russia are frozen in anticipation of how events will develop.

According to the researcher of Putinism, sociologist Igor Eidman, the fact that Kadyrov made an attempt on Kerimov (Putin’s “wallet”) says a lot.

“The most important thing is that the presidential administration and Putin himself have intervened in this conflict on behalf of Kerimov. The fact is that, as has long been known in Moscow business circles, Kerimov regularly pays off (mostly through offshore schemes, and now, probably, through crypto) to Vaino, Kiriyenko, the Kabaeva family, Putin’s daughters, as well as his nominees, like Roldugin. Putin must protect one of his wallets. 
Kadyrov cannot help but know this, but he still threatens reprisals. It seems that Putin is losing control over his Chechen satrap. Apparently, Kadyrov believes that the Russian dictator is weakened by the war against Ukraine and his opinion can be ignored,” Eidman believes.

And if Putin does not demonstrate his strength, other representatives of the Russian elite will think the same, which is absolutely deadly for his dictatorship. “And if he harshly puts Kadyrov in his place, he could get a conflict in the Caucasus (both with Kadyrov’s men and with anti-Russian forces), which at a time of extreme tension in the war against Ukraine, Russia is simply not in a position to wage. Thus, Kadyrov has driven Putin into zugzwang, and any further move threatens serious problems,” Eidman added.

And the fact that Kadyrov brought the conflict into the public sphere is reminiscent of the actions of the creator of the so-called PMC “Wagner” Yevgeny Prigozhin.

“In the Russian gangster state, all conflicts between thieves are resolved by the gangster boss. It is him that thieves complain to about each other, and they bring their conflicts to his court. It is against the rules to drag suckers into thieves’ showdowns, that is, to bring the showdowns to the public sphere. This is how Prigozhin’s conflict with the Kremlin began. Having failed to receive Putin’s support in his confrontation with Gerasimov and Shoigu, Prigozhin brought the conflict out into the public. Now Kadyrov has followed this path, having made his showdown with Kerimov public, apparently having failed to receive support in it from Putin. This is a breach of subordination and a challenge to the gangster boss, and it could all end in an open confrontation with the Kremlin, as was the case with Prigozhin,” Eidman believes.

Prigozhin died on board his plane.

The creator of “Wagner” was liquidated after his “march on Moscow”. Will Putin swallow Kadyrov’s demarche? There will be no winners in any outcome.

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