The Minister of National Policy and Information of Chechnya, Akhmed Dudayev, stated that blogger Areg Shchepikhin was not kidnapped, but detained in Moscow by law enforcement officers from the Chechen Republic. He "publicly and repeatedly called for ethnic cleansing and Nazism, insulted religion and God, and also expressed clearly extremist views," Dudayev said.

The minister stated that Shchepikhin's actions could fall under several articles of the criminal code at once. The materials were transferred to law enforcement agencies by State Duma deputies from Chechnya.

On the evening of June 3, near the Yaroslavsky railway station in Moscow, several men, in front of witnesses, dragged Areg Shchepikhin into the trunk of a Mercedes with flashing lights and Chechen license plates.

The transport police of the Central Federal District are searching for the blogger. There have been no official statements from the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Investigative Committee yet. Earlier, Shchepikhin published videos on social networks with xenophobic statements about Chechens, Dagestanis and Islam.