On the 31st of December, 2001, a group of thirty armed men in military fatigues stormed the Makaev household in Urus-Martan, Chechnya. They dragged everyone out and ordered them to the ground at gunpoint. Rustam Makaev was thrown into an UAZ and driven to an undisclosed location. The following morning, Rustam's wife Louisa confronted Rem Muratovich, the colonel of the Urus-Martan military unit, with details of the abduction. The colonel confessed that Rustam was arrested by mistake, only to deny that this conversation had taken place a week later. The whereabouts of Rustam remain unknown.