Women working at a retail company in Vladimir Putin's Russia are being subjected to humiliating daily strip-searches, it has emerged.
Leaked video footage shows how female staff members are being forced to take off their clothes to ensure they are not taking banned items in or out.
The Wildberries workplace is run by Putin-friendly oligarch and self made billionaire Tatyana Bakalchuk.
The 47-year-old mum of seven is a one-time English teacher with close Kremlin links.
A video, reported to be in Putin's home city St Petersburg, shows her female employees are forced to strip to their underwear for shaming searches by female inspectors.
This happens in both the morning and the evening, according to several reports.
Bakalchuk’s platform Wildberries has mushroomed as Russia’s largest online marketplace with more than 48,000 employees.
It comes amid claims it has profited from “grey” imports bypassing Western sanctions.
The strip search footage has caused shock in Russia.
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".
They add: “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.
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.
