Areg Shchepikhin, a 39-year-old technology entrepreneur, was taken in broad daylight from a central railway station in Moscow on Tuesday after making disparaging remarks about ethnic Chechens and Islam on social media.
Footage circulating online depicted a group of bearded men in suits carrying Shchepikhin from the Yaroslavsky station and placing him in the trunk of an SUV, all while bystanders and security personnel looked on.
Moscow police announced that their transportation unit had initiated an investigation into the videos showing the “unlawful acts against a person.”
In an Instagram post filled with profanity the day before, Shchepikhin expressed strong disdain for Chechens and Islam, declaring: “I f*cked your Allah, your Quran, and everything you cherish.”
The Telegram channel Baza, which is believed to have ties to Russian security agencies, reported that Shchepikhin was kidnapped “just minutes” after he uploaded one of his recent videos, suggesting that this may have enabled his abductors to locate him.
Another Telegram channel, Shot, stated that the authorities intercepted the SUV containing Shchepikhin later that evening, but he was no longer inside it.
According to Shot, three individuals alleged to be the kidnappers identified themselves to law enforcement as “active members of the National Guard conducting an operational procedure.”
Video footage released by Shot showed the men leaving a police station on Wednesday morning, with one of them chanting the Chechen slogan “Akhmat Sila” (“Akhmat Power” or “Akhmat Rules”) as they entered the SUV.
Akhmed Dudayev, Chechnya’s Minister for Information and National Policy, stated on Wednesday that Shchepikhin was “not abducted but detained by law enforcement personnel cooperating with Moscow authorities.” He argued that Shchepikhin’s posts could violate several laws, including offenses against the sentiments of religious believers and the promotion of Nazism.
Dudayev accused the media of wrongly portraying Shchepikhin as a victim and defended the actions taken against him by referencing Russia’s ongoing military campaign in Ukraine.
“In a nation engaged in a special military campaign against Nazism, to condone and advocate for Nazism is a grave offense,” Dudayev wrote on Telegram.
Shchepikhin had posted pictures with various Russian political figures and celebrities, including Vladimir Medinsky, who is Russia’s lead negotiator in peace discussions with Ukraine in Turkey.
The kidnapping aligns with a pattern of abductions and disappearances of those who criticize the Chechen leadership, according to Sergei Babinets, a lawyer and head of the human rights organization Crew Against Torture.
Later on Wednesday, Baza reported that Shchepikhin was released around midnight and spent the night at a local hostel. The Moscow Times was unable to immediately confirm this information.
Images of Shchepikhin released on Wednesday showed him with facial bruises and walking with a limp.
