From Hostility to Reconciliation: Why Did Putin Change Its Policy Towards Islam?

The Russian ground forces’ leader was an Islamic-looking military corps that prayed, carrying weapons, before setting out for war.

These forces are affiliated with the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, appearing, this time, as the model of the Mujahideen of that country in the nineties of the last century.

However, they fight, today, with absolute loyalty to the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ramzan Kadyrov's army opened the file of a new Russia's relationship with Islam, after eras of repression and violations persecuting Muslims for decades.

What has changed? Why did Putin change his policy towards Muslims in his country? What are Russia's goals for attracting the Muslim component of society?

 

Kadyrov's Army

On February 25, 2022, Daily Mail published a detailed report on Ramzan Kadyrov and his mobilization of thousands of Chechen fighters to fight in Ukraine, saying: "Kadyrov owes allegiance to the Russian president, even calling him 'Putin's spoiled boy,' knowing that Chechnya is a republic of the Russian Federation."

The report stressed that "the Muslim groups that Kadyrov sent to fight are from the special forces, in addition other semi-governmental forces."

The Chechen forces gathered in a forest on the outskirts of Ukraine and performed prayers in preparation for the start of the fighting, according to the report.

The same source noted that Kadyrov personally accompanied the soldiers before heading to Ukraine, around 10 thousand fighters.

Ramzan Kadyrov, is the President of the Chechen Republic, who, as a young man, joined his father in the military struggle waged by the Muslim Chechens for independence from Russia, especially since he was from a family of great religious and political standing.

Reconciliation with Moscow enabled his father to rule the country until he was assassinated in 2004. He handed over power to him as his successor, and established security for the benefit of Russia, which is described as its strongman, and one of the circles close to Putin.

Kadyrov was accused of full loyalty to the Russian president, in addition to corruption, tyranny, and assassinations of Russian and Chechen opponents.

With the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, several Islamic institutions declared they are against Kadyrov, his approach, and his fighters, considering that they are "Russian soldiers with a formal Chechen-Islamic front, not based on the principles and morals of Islam in their decisions and actions."

 

Putin's Strategy

Russia's use of Chechen forces opened the door to its relationship with Muslims. On March 11, 2018, Russia's Grand Mufti Rawi Ayn al-Din announced that Russian Muslims live in harmony with the spectrum of Russian society (25 million people), and they are constantly increasing.

He added: “Their presence is largely concentrated in areas where there were Islamic countries before the formation of the Russian Federation, such as Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and the North Caucasus republics."

On the national level, since he held power in 2000, Putin has carried out a radically different strategy for Muslims than in previous eras.

Only 3 years ago, Putin visited the conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (the Organization of the Islamic Conference at the time), after which several statements were made about rapprochement with the Islamic world and respect for Muslims inside the country.

Then, some notable events came, the most important of which was Russia's accession as an observer to UNESCO (an organization similar to the UN UNESCO but within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation). Then came the visit of the leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas to Moscow in 2006, to enhance the latter's openness more to the Islamic world with its organizational movements.

On October 22, 2013, the Russian President announced that Islam was an integral part of Russia's history, and that it would not allow the friendship between its ethnic groups to be undermined.

Throughout the history of the Russian state, Vladimir Putin is the first high-ranking politician to officially recognize Russia as a country with an Islamic dimension.

According to a report published by the Al Jazeera Center for Studies, entitled “Russian Foreign Policy and Islam: Reshaping National Identity” on February 9, 2014, no one did take this step towards Russian Muslims, before Putin, neither the czars nor the emperors, nor any general secretary of the Communist Party.

Putin went even further when he said: "Muslims in Russia have every right to feel that they are part of the global Islamic nation, and that Moscow has been and remains a geopolitical ally of Islam."

 

Past Mistakes

Putin's rapprochement with Muslims is inseparable from the strategy of geopolitical expansion, and the restoration of the glories of the ancient empire in its areas of influence in the Balkans and other areas with Islamic presence.

Russia has influence in the Balkans, relying on the cultural and religious ties that link it to some countries in the region.

It also supplies them with energy and contributes to the establishment of stability there, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in an attempt to counter the encroachment and expansion of the European Union and NATO.

Russia is trying to overcome the mistakes of the past by alienating millions of Muslims, and to learn from the lesson of its traditional rival, the United States, which exploited that active element in the Cold War, and was able to win, and then dismantle the Soviet Union after that.

Back in 1977, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security advisor to former US President Jimmy Carter, was the architect of the American-style Afghan jihad, and one of the most important strategic US policy planners ever.

He is the author of the idea of ​​exploiting Muslims in the war against Russia, to the extent that he issued his famous cry and addressed them saying: "We have an idea of ​​your great faith in God…and we are confident that you will be the winners.”

After financial and political support, a long war with the Soviets continued, ending in their defeat after antagonizing the entire Islamic world .

Today, Putin and his regime go beyond that time, and seek to support pillars that attract Islamic elements. The Russian President even pledged on January 25, 2018, his government's support for ways to revive Islamic religious education in the country.

"Traditional Islam is an integral part of the Russian cultural system, it is a very important component of the multi-ethnic Russian people," Putin added during a meeting with a number of symbols of the Russian Islamic religion in the city of Kazan (southwest).

 

Russia vs Islam

Muhammad Salih, a Russian Muslim doctor, of eastern origin, spoke to Al-Estiklal about the nature of the Russian state's treatment of Islam and the large Muslim communities in the country.

He says that "Islam is the second largest religion in Russia, and they are made up of different races, such as Tatars, Kazans, Turks, Circassians, and indigenous Russians.

He added: "Since the nineties of the last century, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Islamic community, which was devastated and dispersed, began to restore its balance, and modern Russia has worked to absorb the oppressed components, including Muslims."

He continued to say that "there is an Islamic university that teach Sharia in Kazan, and Muslim students register from all over Russia, as well as Islamic educational and awareness institutions in many sprawling cities."

He stated: "The main reason that changed Russia's modern policy under the umbrella of President Putin towards Muslims is the great loss of the Soviet Union as a result of the loss and hostility of this main element of the state."

He stated that the tragedies and violations that occurred in the research of Muslims during the Soviet era are unforgettable, and their effects still remain in the hearts of Muslims, who were not even allowed to have the Quran in the house.

Thus, they held strong hostility to the regime, and some of them engaged in fighting against it during the Chechen war, he said.

Saleh added: “Today, some elements from Russia's Muslims are fighting within the regular forces of the Russian army, but we never lose sight of the fact that the legacy of the existing state is still present, and that the apparent Islam in Russia is governed by many rules according to the framework specified by the government and the intelligence service."

He indicated that "there is no absolute freedom of religion in Russia in general, and Islam in particular, we are facing a developed situation, but it is not ideal, and it is not compared to the conditions of Muslims in Europe and the United States, for example.”