The Seller Always Pays

22 years ago, Tatyana Kim was fighting to get her e-commerce platform off the ground. Today, she is Russia’s richest woman and one of its most elusive business leaders. Her company, Wildberries, is the country’s answer to Amazon. But over the past few weeks, it has taken centre stage in the Ukraine war with the online retailer’s warehouses under a sustained drone attack by Ukraine.

The Ukrainian claim? Wildberries sells military-use products, making it a legitimate target. The Russians and Tatyana claim otherwise.

At least 20 warehouses have been hit since mid-July. Both verified and unverified videos on social media and news outlets show plumes of smoke and raging fires as both warehouses and goods stored by vendors have gone up in flames. Wildberries has also confirmed the latest attacks reached even its logistics centre in Yekaterinburg in the Urals, 2,000km from the Ukrainian border.

Russia’s Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, speaking at a 24 July press conference announcing a cut to its 2026 GDP forecast, said she expected faster inflation and that the Ukrainian attacks had created a supply shock in the economy that could lead to further price rises. According to a Reuters report she added that insurance firms providing cover for the damaged facilities and goods had enough capital to deal with the aftermath of the attacks.

That reassurance looked odd just a week later when Tatyana was forced into a rare public appearance. On 31 July, she appeared on a Telegram video to speak with both sellers and buyers. Her appearance itself was news, what she said gave business publications and sellers on the platform pause for thought.

Per the English translation of her address provided by Russian independent Media ‘Meduza’:

Attacks on Wildberries’ infrastructure are attacks on civilians. And I repeat, not only on Russians. Tens of thousands of people from Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, and China do business within our ecosystem. 

The terrorist attacks on our warehouses constitute force majeure. Whether or not that clause appears in the offer agreements is immaterial; under the law, these losses are not subject to compensation.

In the current situation, only we and the state can help you.

Those are the sentences that have vendors paying attention. Force majeure. No compensation. Only we and the state can help you.

It was an odd statement for a marketplace to make. Especially one which handles 52% of all online Russian orders with products from 500,000 to 800,000 small vendors, according to Data Insight, a Moscow based research firm.

So why was she doubling down?

Flipping The Vendor Contract

On 1 July Wildberries had announced an updated agreement with its vendors, removing any liabilities for goods lost or damaged in air strikes, drone attacks or civil unrest. That force majeure clause came into effect 7 July. And it was detailed. It also raised its merchant commission fees from 10 to 20%.

Both clauses came on the back of a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow in June, that set a major oil refinery ablaze. That same day, there was an unconfirmed strike on a Wildberries Moscow warehouse.

On 18 July confirmed attacks on Wildberries began in earnest. Estimates from Russian market research agency Data Insight put the damage of the company’s warehouse capacity at 17%-22%.

According to a Forbes Russia report (citing Data Insight), Wildberries’ vendors themselves may have suffered bigger losses, between 215-280 billion rubles ($2.6 billion -$3.4 billion).

Why It Matters

A force majeure clause of itself wouldn’t raise eyebrows. It was the re-write of it that did, just days before war came knocking on the doors of Russian citizens. Reports indicate prior versions of the agreement released both parties from liability in a force majeure event. The rewrite in July exempted only the marketplace, the party providing the service.

Wildberries’ main rival, Ozon is reported to have made similar changes around the same time frame. Yandex Market, another retailer, updated its contracts as the attacks on Wildberries continued.

The question is whether Russia's dominant marketplaces knowingly wrote their sellers out of compensation for war? And did two of the major players do so before that war reached their warehouses.

Meduza’s reporting shows vendors have been left with no choice or clarity on the losses they have suffered. Wildberries doesn’t own the stock it moves. Russian business outlets like Kommersant and Forbes are reporting sellers' losses far exceed Wildberries. There is no clarity for medium and large-scale vendors. Reports suggest the pick-up points for orders across Russia, run by small operators are now also struggling.  And going by Tatyana’s own video, the odds of compensation from the platform are slim.

That is going to sting for an economy that has come to rely on e-commerce platforms to help the mom-and-pop shops across Russia survive.

Too Big To Burn

Per the English translation of Tatyana’s video address provided by Russian independent Media ‘Meduza,’ on 31 July she plainly laid out the steps Wildberries was taking, as she discouraged vendors from talking to lawyers:

She highlighted two tranches of support payments to small and medium businesses, with larger partners offered an increased loyalty discount at Wildberries’ expense and a repayment holiday at the platform’s bank. She indicated the platform would be meeting vendors in person in the hardest-hit areas but doubled down on one thing: cooperation with the state.

“We have acted as a conduit for the interests of small and medium-sized businesses, and we have already discussed with the federal government a comprehensive set of support measures for all affected entrepreneurs. A general system under which everyone will receive help is now being developed. This set of measures will be announced in the coming days.”

So even as pro-Kremlin and independent critical news outlets face-off on the debate of whether Russia’s legal system will uphold these new force majeure clauses - the real question is: if the platform has said it will not be liable, and if Russian courts find it is, who exactly will be compensating Russia’s small vendors for war damage?

That is exactly the pressure the Ukrainians may be hoping for, even as they firmly deny targeting civilians and ordinary Russians.

The Kremlin Hand

While the Russian Central Bank is once again in wait and watch mode, the Kremlin has moved from silence to being more vocal.

This is the same government and President that backed Tatyana in a very contested and acrimonious merger with advertiser Russ Group in 2024. It split Tatyana and her co-founder and (now ex) husband Vladislav Bakalchuk, who opposed it. His appeal for support from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov turned the merger into a political fight. That ended in a high-profile shootout outside the Wildberries office in central Moscow.

Reuters reports the Kremlin is exploring ways to support Wildberries and its sellers, with the state-controlled lender VTB expected to play a central role. That there are discussions ongoing has been confirmed by the government.

Whether the state becomes the backstop, is a bet Russian business leaders like Tatyana will have to make. They will also have to bet on whether clauses like the force majeure will erase the goodwill Russia’s online retailers have built over the years.

And they just might make that bet. The e-commerce industry handles goods and services worth the equivalent of around 8.5% of Russia's GDP. That is both real power and a real threat to the Russian economy.

The other is a back-up plan Tatyana Kim has already kicked into high gear. A planned warehouse facility in Kazakhstan has been fast tracked. Well beyond the reach of Ukrainian drones. For now.