FSB Arrests Members of Batal-Haji Sufi Order in Moscow, Ingushetia, and Chechnya

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 30 – The FSB has arrested five more members of the Batal-Haji Sufi order in separate raids in Moscow, Ingushetia, and Chechnya, bringing to 12 the number of those identified as part of a militant wing of that group now facing charges in Russian courts (kommersant.ru/doc/8336201 and fortanga.org/2025/12/18680/).

            The leaders of the order say that those arrested were acting on their own rather than at the direction of the wird, but perhaps the most intriguing aspect of these arrests is that they suggest Moscow is now prepared to take on a Sufi order of enormous size and influence not only in Ingushetia but more generally.

            In reports about the arrests, Kommersant says that the Batal-Haji Sufi order numbers as many as 35,000 people; and Fortanga adds that it is only “one of the largest” such orders in that republic, where it has long played a key role in the government and society.  (For background, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/03/rise-and-fall-of-batal-haji-sufi-order.html.)

            The Batal-Haji order also is closely tied Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov who has sought to use it to expand his influence in neighboring Ingushetia (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/11/chechnyas-kadyrov-takes-up-cause-of.html). As a result, Moscow has proceeded cautiously against the order in the past (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/01/moscow-authorities-forced-to-proceed.html).

            The latest arrests and the fact that they involved people far from Ingushetia suggest that Moscow has decided to take on the Batal-Haji Sufi order even though moves against it threaten to trigger violence in the North Caucasus and Moscow as members of the order defend themselves and their activities.