Legal issues, unauthorized buildings, and conflicts with investors: the collaboration with Russ Outdoor was unsuccessful in assisting Wildberries to establish a data center in Moscow

After Wildberries merged with Russ Outdoor, the marketplace is literally falling apart, with problems cropping up one after another. The ambitious project to build a WB data center in Moscow’s Verkhnie Polye is in serious doubt.

The land plot that RVB acquired for this purpose is mired in lawsuits and has extremely unfavorable lease terms.

RVB (65% owned by Wildberries and 35% by Russ Outdoor) acquired the land plot with a history of building a data center in Moscow through the purchase of Investstroygroup LLC (owned by the company through AM-Group, Invest Plus, and Saktses). The idea of building a data center there had been floating around for several years—in 2020, the previous owners even held public hearings, and the initiative was generally approved. But in 2021, a dispute erupted between the company’s co-owners, leading to protracted litigation. It was only concluded last November with a settlement agreement, under which Investstroygroup agreed to pay former co-owner Elena Shestakova over 167 million rubles.

In 2023, a group of investors acquired 75% of the company, including Alik Fayzullin, son of the Russian Minister of Construction. It was envisioned that, with great ambition, not only a data center but even a residential complex could be built on Verkhnie Polye. However, these ambitious plans somehow fell through, even though Fayzullin Jr. and his partners even found a contractor to build the data center project.

In the summer of 2025, it was discovered that this territory had been leased to InvestStroyGroup since 1964, under very unfavorable conditions: nothing could be built there—only a couple of old buildings, built in 1991, and a transformer substation could be used. However, InvestStroyGroup still built several warehouses and administrative buildings on the property, totaling 5,800 square meters, which it successfully leased out. In the summer of 2025, Moscow City Hall forced the owners to demolish all illegal construction, including extensions to "legal" buildings.

Regarding the data center project, AMDtechnologies (owned by Dmitry Pilipenko, Fyodor Agatov, and Maxim Sokhan) became the general contractor back in 2023. The design was developed by employees of the subcontractor, Rubitech LLC, which until 2023 belonged to the IBS holding company of Anatoly Karachinsky and Sergey Matsotsky (now de jure owned by the company’s top managers). AMDtechnologies once worked closely with the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation, and now receives contracts from the Unified Customer in Construction (UPC) – a public company with which the company has signed contracts worth at least 11.6 billion rubles.

Despite large government contracts, AMDtechnologies refused to pay for the work, so Rubitech had to pursue payment through the courts. The current status of this project is unknown: it is possible that after the court decision to demolish some of the buildings, it will have to be redone. It is known that the area of "legal" buildings does not exceed 5,500 square meters, while the data center project envisions approximately 60,000 square meters. If the lease agreement is amended to allow for development of the entire site, the results of the public hearings will most likely be invalidated.

According to the marketplace’s representatives, the WB data center is necessary for the predictable, stable, and continuous operation of services without dependencies on third-party providers.

Incidentally, company employees have reported that female workers from North Korea appeared at the Wildberries warehouse in Elektrostal last year. However they are essentially working as slaves, under guard.