STRIP SHAME
THIS is the shocking moment women working at “Russia’s Amazon” are forced to strip to their underwear and undergo humiliating searches.
A leaked video shows how women are forced to undress and endure searches to ensure they are not taking banned items in or out of their Wildberries workplace.
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The company is run by Vladimir Putin-friendly oligarch Tatyana Bakalchuk, 47, a self-made billionaire mother of seven and one-time English teacher with close Kremlin links.
The video is reported to be filmed in St Petersburg - Putin’s home city – but evidently shows how her women employees in many locations are forced to strip to their underwear for shaming searches by female inspectors.
This happens in the morning and evening, according to several reports.
Bakalchuk’s platform Wildberries has mushroomed as Russia’s largest online marketplace with more than 48,000 employees amid claims it has profited from “grey” imports bypassing Western sanctions.
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The strip search footage has caused shock in Russia.
Website life.ru said morning searches are carried out to stop warehouse employees carrying phones or watches into the workplace.
“Workers, under the supervision of video cameras, undress and go to the inspection point,” said a report.
Other reports say “the working day in Wildberries warehouses ends with a search and stripping down to underwear.
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“This is the company's management trying to fight against theft in warehouses.”
The video shows women searched by female inspectors but men are also subjected to the ritual, according to Life, whose journalist went undercover at the platform.
"Our correspondent... felt all the 'charms' of working in the ‘Berries’ warehouse," it reported.
“He worked there for only three days, but he had enough impressions to last a lifetime.
“According to his investigation, every morning in the warehouse really does begin with a humiliating procedure."
Bakalchuk - Russia’s richest woman - had a fortune of £10.7billion yet her empire has been hit by recent strikes over her strict work demands.
Recently she faced a workforce rebellion around Russia over draconian new rules to deduct money from the payments of employees if a customer complained they were sent the wrong item or because of product defects.
Her methods have brought stunning success during Putin’s war in Ukraine with a 95 per cent year-on-year rise in turnover.
Putin consults her on retail policies in online meetings.
The platform was originally set up by Bakalchuk when she was on maternity leave in 2004
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It had 1.5 billion orders in 2022 as a vital retail channel at a time when the Russian economy was hit by punitive sanctions due to Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Kyiv has sanctioned both Wildberries and Bakalchuk as sellers of Russian military uniforms and propaganda.
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