About a third of Ozon’s shares, Russia's biggest online marketplace, was bought by oligarch Gennady Timchenko on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) set up by the late anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny claims.

Navalny died in a Russian prison under questionable circumstances in February 2024 after openly challenging the Kremlin and was eventually jailed. His foundation continues to be active and published its latest investigation on August 27 tracing roughly 34% of Ozon back to Gennady Timchenko, the sanctioned billionaire it describes as one of Putin's "wallets". Timchenko's Delta provided the initial financing as an interest-free loan, the group says, and the money then moved through Optima, Stratosfera and Corporation 42 before reaching O23, the company that holds the stake.

O23 was created shortly before the deal. The stake it acquired belonged to Baring Vostok, formerly managed by US fund manager Michael Calvey, who was jailed on trumped up charges in a corporate dispute. After the jailing and the start of the war in Ukraine, Barings Vostok wound up its business and sold its stake in Ozon. The formal new owner is Alexander Chachava, an entrepreneur who has been buying up major Russian digital assets since the full-scale invasion despite no earlier record of transactions on that scale. Stratosfera received loans of RUB51.23bn ($596mn) during 2024, according to the foundation's reading of the filings.

"During the war against Ukraine, Russia is witnessing the largest redistribution of private property in favour of Putin and his inner circle," the foundation said, calling for sanctions on the people and companies in the chain.

Ozon is a listed company with a foreign investor base. It has recently become a target for Ukraine’s drones as part of the escalating warehouse war and seen several of its warehouses destroyed in the last week. Ozon shares fell 28% on August 25 after Ukrainian drones hit three of its warehouses, days after Ukraine burned the company's largest distribution centre at Orenburg. Russia's marketplaces have since asked the state to cover losses, and Putin has signed a decree on undefended infrastructure whose owners fail to defend it from drones.

"Putin's money is going up in flames," FBK commented.

Timchenko is a so-called stoligarch, one of the small group of ultra-rich oligarchs that are personal friends of Putin, who have won multiple state contracts in a wide variety of businesses. He was sanctioned by the EU and the US after 2014 and was one of three Russian businessmen the bloc considered delisting in 2023. He has alleged to have been a holder of assets on others' behalf for more than a decade without that ever being established in a court.

Ozon itself has a history of ownership questions. The European Court lifted sanctions on its former chief executive Alexander Shulgin in September 2023 after he challenged them, which is a reminder of how hard beneficial-ownership allegations are to make stick.

The strikes on Ozon are part of the wider campaign against each other's civilian economy in the so-called Operation Wildberries.