Tatyana Bakalchuk, the founder and CEO of Wildberries, is one of just two female billionaires from Russia.

One of Russia’s most compelling entrepreneurial tales has turned into a deadly nightmare.

On Wednesday, at least two people died and seven others were injured after a shooting at the Moscow headquarters of Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, according to media reports.

Tatyana Bakalchuk, the self-made billionaire who founded Wildberries, the $5.9 billion (sales) retailer comparable to Amazon in the U.S., blamed her estranged husband and cofounder, Vladislav Bakalchuk, who she said led a group of armed people into the e-commerce giant’s headquarters, in an attempt to seize operations.

“This is a hostile takeover, or rather, an unsuccessful attempt,” Bakalchuk, the richest woman in Russia, said in a Telegram post in the hours after the shooting (Forbes translated the post into English). She added that she’s appealed to law enforcement “to take control of this situation.”

Vladislav, meanwhile, said in his own Telegram post that guards at the Wildberries office fired on him and his security team unprovoked, leaving some of those who joined him wounded. He said he notified Wildberries beforehand that he wanted to meet with its leadership for business negotiations. Vladislav could not be reached on Wednesday regarding the shootings, and a representative for Tatyana declined to comment beyond the information being released by “official channels.” One of the people killed was a security guard, according to Reuters. Tatyana said in a Telegram post that it was one of Wildberries’ officers.

Wednesday’s tragic events appear to be the latest escalation in a months-long battle between the Bakalchuks, who have been married for at least 20 years, over the future of the e-commerce giant they long ran together. Tatyana left Vladislav in April and then said in July she’d filed for divorce. One month before filing the divorce petition, Wildberries announced its plan to merge with Russ Outdoor, a Russia-based billboard and outdoor advertising operator once owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s New Corp. but sold multiple times before landing with little-known Russian businessman Grigory Sadoyan. The business’ day-to-day operations seem to be run by brothers Robert and Levan Mirzoyan.

While Tatyana endorsed the merger as a way to grow the Wildberries business, Vladislav came out publicly against the deal. Enlisting the help of Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and Putin’s self-described “foot soldier,” Vladislav and Kadryov released a video........

© Forbes