Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov congratulated Vladimir Putin on his birthday and stated that the Russian president's name holds "special significance" for the Chechen people. According to Kadyrov, the region will "never forget" the support Putin extended to his father—Chechnya’s first president, Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov—"at a time when the future of the Chechen Republic depended on the decisions being made."
Activist Rafail Shepelev ended up in a pre-trial detention center in Nizhny Tagil a month and a half after being abducted from Georgia. It is reported that the man was deceived from Tbilisi to South Ossetia, where he was detained by Russian security forces. All documents of the stolen person remained in Georgia.
Shepelev was taken to Vladikavkaz and arrested under the article of “petty hooliganism” for 15 days. While he was serving his administrative sentence, he was charged with committing terrorist crimes.
Rafail was taken to the pre-trial detention center in Nizhny Tagil.
The activist’s son Danil Shepelev excludes the possibility that his father could have gone to Russia on his own initiative, where a criminal case awaited him.
Rafail Shepelev is a native of Yekaterinburg. He has repeatedly held pickets in support of Alexei Navalny and other political prisoners.