Areg Shchepikhin, a businessman and blogger, was allegedly kidnapped at the Yaroslavsky railway station in Moscow. According to reports, four individuals forcibly carried him through the building and placed him in the trunk of a black Mercedes before driving away. The incident occurred shortly after Shchepikhin posted a video online criticizing a Chechen individual, their family, nationality, and religion.

Moscow police have detained six people in connection with the incident at the train station.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Chechnya for National Policy, External Relations, Press and Information, Akhmed Dudaev, has denied the kidnapping reports. Dudaev stated that Shchepikhin was detained as part of an investigation into insulting the feelings of believers under Article 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

In other news, Russia is experiencing record-breaking temperatures. The first five months of this year have been the warmest in Russia’s recorded history. Roman Vilfand, the scientific director of the Russian Hydrometeorological Center, noted that April saw particularly warm weather in the central European part of Russia, with seven record values broken.

Vilfand predicts that the temperature increase will continue, with an 80% chance that one of the next five years will be the warmest on Earth, surpassing the 2024 record.

Finally, the Ministry of Digital Development is developing a new state messenger. The head of the department, Maksut Shadaev, informed President Vladimir Putin and the government that the messenger will include a digital assistant to guide users through various state and financial services.

President Putin has instructed that state and financial services be integrated into the domestic messenger platform. The technical development of these services is currently underway.