A native of Chechnya disappeared after being detained at Verkhniy Lars.

Shamil Artsuyev's family has been trying to find out his fate for over three months after his arrest on the Russian-Georgian border in November 2025. Several people have encountered Artsuyev in various detention centers, but security officials refuse to provide any information about him to his family.

A message from one of 48-year-old Artsuyev's relatives was received in the "Caucasian Knot" Telegram feedback bot. Relatives fear he is being tortured and may be killed or sent under duress to a war zone.

Shamil is the eldest of the four Artsuyev brothers. He lived in Chechnya for a long time, worked for Gorteploset, and did not take part in military operations, his brothers Abdullah and Isa told "Caucasian Knot." Since 2017, Artsuyev had lived in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, where their brother Zelimkhan had opened a small factory producing lamps and headlights. Shamil assisted his brother in the business.

In 2022, Shamil Artsuyev and his family left Ukraine for Sweden. However, due to difficulties obtaining a residence permit, he returned to Russia and lived in Chechnya from November 2023. In July 2025, he returned to Vinnytsia due to his younger brother's serious illness to help him and support the business. Four months later, he was returning home.

Detention and a series of arrests

According to Isa Artsuyev, on November 17, 2025, Shamil was detained at the Verkhniy Lars border crossing between Russia and Georgia.

“Perhaps the Ukrainian stamp in his passport attracted attention. He was arrested for 15 days, then for another 15 days. After that, an employee of the special detention center informed us that he had been taken away by unknown masked men who identified themselves as FSB officers,” he told a Caucasian Knot correspondent.

Initially, according to relatives, Artsuyev was charged with petty hooliganism. However, during a meeting at the special detention center in Vladikavkaz, he informed his brother that FSB officers suspected him of treason. "They took him to rooms without cameras and used physical violence, demanding a confession. He refused and cited Article 51 of the Constitution," said Isa Artsuyev.

According to Abdullah Artsuyev, 45 days after his arrest, Shamil was handed over to the FSB, after which his relatives were no longer informed of his whereabouts and procedural status. "Now, in response to all of his lawyer's requests and letters, we receive a response that he is not being held there and that they allegedly know nothing about him," he said.

Relatives have sent numerous appeals to the FSB, the Investigative Committee, the military prosecutor's office, as well as the human rights ombudsmen, Mansur Soltayev in Chechnya and the federal ombudsman, Tatyana Moskalkova. All responses received boiled down to the phrases "we have no information" and "there is no such person listed anywhere."

At least two people saw Artsuyev in a pretrial detention center near Belgorod

In early March, a man claiming to be Artsuyev's former cellmate contacted Artsuyev's relatives. He reported that as of March 3, 2026, Shamil was being held in Pretrial Detention Center No. 2 in Stary Oskol, Belgorod Oblast, where, according to him, Ukrainian prisoners of war were also being held. Later, in the second half of March, a woman called the family, claiming that her relative had also been held in the same pretrial detention center with Artsuyev. According to the woman, he had spent approximately 10 months there without procedural status. However, when the relatives and their lawyer arrived at Pretrial Detention Center No. 2, they were officially informed that Shamil Artsuyev had never been held there.

During the preliminary investigation by the Investigative Committee for North Ossetia, Isa Artsuyev was given a copy of a statement allegedly written by Shamil, in which he claimed to be safe and requested that the search for him be stopped. A photograph was also provided along with the copy.

“The photograph is of very poor quality. It could very well be him, but I didn't immediately recognize him: he was beardless, even though he hadn't shaved it for the last twenty years for religious reasons,” Isa noted.

The statement shown to the relatives on March 10, 2026, was written almost three months earlier and is dated December 19, 2025. A former cellmate claims Shamil was dressed in civilian clothes several times and taken out to write similar statements. "I believe these letters could have been written under duress," added Isa Artsuyev. Relatives fear that security forces are pressuring Shamil to confess. "We're afraid he could be forced to incriminate himself," said Abdullah Artsuyev. Isa Artsuyev added that one of the prisoners held with his brother had also previously disappeared for several months, after which he suddenly "turned up" in Rostov-on-Don, where he was registered as a recent detainee. "I fear the same scenario could be used against Shamil," he emphasized.