Two people were killed and seven -- including two police officers -- were wounded in a shoot-out near the office of Russia's largest online retailer, Wildberries, on September 18.
The Investigative Committee said it has launched a probe into the "elements of crimes" -- including murder, the attempted murder of two or more people, illegal weapons possession, the attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, and the "forcible assertion of private right."
The statement came hours after the Wildberries' press service claimed Vladislav Bakalchuk, the husband of the retailer's founder and CEO, Tatyana Bakalchuk, and several other men tried to "illegally break into the offices." It added that others tried to take over a different Wildberries office in Moscow at the same time.
Vladislav Bakalchuk called the shoot-out "a large-scale provocation," claiming that he arrived in the Wildberries' office for what he called "another stage of negotiations" related to suspending the construction of new storage buildings for the company.
The couple are currently in the process of a divorce.
"I arrived in the office along with my colleagues, but right at the entrance, I was attacked by security officers and unknown individuals, who provoked an armed conflict," Vladislav Bakalchuk said.
Meanwhile, Tatyana Bakalchuk said on Telegram that a group led by her husband and two others, whom she identified as Sergei Anufriyev and Vladimir Bakin, attempted to seize Wildberries' offices in the Russian capital.
"The statement of some sort of negotiations, to which an armed group arrived, sounds absurd, because nobody had agreed on any negotiations," Tatyana Bakalchuk wrote on Telegram.
The Ostorozhno, Moskva Telegram channel reported that 10 people allegedly involved in the standoff -- some of whom might be ethnic Chechens -- were detained at the site.
The RIA Novosti news agency quoted law enforcement officials as saying that around 30 people were detained and brought to police for questioning after the incident.
Tatyana Bakalchuk, 48, is the richest woman in Russia. Forbes estimates her worth at more than $4 billion.
Wildberries has benefited from sanctions imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as Western e-commerce firms pulled out of the country. Wildberries revenue jumped 70 percent last year to 539 billion rubles ($5.8 billion). Net profit rose even faster to 19 billion rubles ($205 million).
Balachuk told Tass she expected turnover on the platform to rise 60 percent this year to more than $40 billion.
She filed for divorce after her husband asked the Kremlin-backed authoritarian leader of Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, for help in a conflict with his wife in July this year, claiming plans to merge Wildberries with Russ Group, an out-of-home advertising operator, were harmful for the company and amounted to a hostile takeover.
Tatyana Bakalchuk was the sole owner of her empire until December 2019, when she transferred 1 percent of her business to her husband.
She is believed to have ties to powerful political figures in the Russian government, including Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and his first deputy, Denis Manturov.
Russia experienced a wave of armed business raids in the turbulent decade immediately following the collapse of communism as groups fought over valuable, former state assets. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there has been a reversal, with the state seizing ownership of not only former state assets but private businesses launched after 1991.