What if ⚡️🌋

Many people are asking: “Why the hell strike Wildberries warehouses? It would be better to keep hammering oil refineries. It’s just an online marketplace.” Here is the brief and straightforward explanation. First, the obvious reasons: Wildberries openly sold everything needed for the military: drone components, body armor, radios and helmets. There were even dedicated “Everything for the Special Military Operation” sections. Large warehouses are convenient targets. Burning one can immediately disrupt logistics across an entire region. Thousands of sellers lose their goods, while ordinary people begin to feel the war personally through delays, disappearing products and general chaos. But that is not even the main point. The main point is money and banks. Wildberries is one of the largest debtors in Russia. The company’s turnover exceeds 6 trillion rubles — roughly 3% of Russia’s GDP. Its debts amount to around 1.3 trillion rubles. It reportedly owes hundreds of billions to VTB alone. VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, is heavily tied to this marketplace. If warehouses continue to burn and the company begins to collapse, VTB could suffer enormous losses. And VTB is a state-controlled bank. That means the government would have to rescue it using public money. Would this hurt the “gas-station country”? Yes — but differently from strikes on oil refineries. Strikes on refineries hit budget revenues and fuel supplies. Strikes on Wildberries warehouses hit banks, small businesses and the morale of ordinary people. When someone’s parcel never arrives, a seller loses all their goods and a major bank starts shaking, the war stops feeling like something happening “far away.” It also forces the state to spend oil revenues not on the military, but on patching holes in retail and banking. In brief: Oil refineries — a strike on the Kremlin’s wallet. Wildberries — a strike on the public’s wallet and nerves, as well as on the banking system. Both are necessary. Together, they work much more effectively. 🤟