Moscow Arrests Ten Senior Muslim Leaders, Sending New Chill through Russia’s Islamic Community

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 21 – The Russian authorities have arrested on a variety of charges ten senior Muslim leaders, an action that some are linking to a recent suggestion that Muslims are ready to take power in Russia and that others say is directed at undermining an even more senior mufti who in the Kremlin’s view has taken a too independent line.

            On the arrests, see  t.me/agentstvonews/15450, echofm.online/news/v-rossii-zaderzhany-kak-minimum-dva-muftiya, meduza.io/feature/2026/05/21/v-rossii-zaderzhali-dvuh-muftiev-duhovnogo-upravleniya-musulman-odnogo-zapodozrili-vo-vzyatke-vtorogo-v-nepovinovenii-politsii, https://t.me/OstashkoNews/213428 and sova-center.ru/religion/news/harassment/intervention/2026/05/d53798/.

            Neither the arrests themselves nor the specific reasons for them have been confirmed by Russian officials. On the one hand, that means that these actions may be the beginning of a general crackdown on the Muslim Spiritual Directorates (MSD) that oversee most of the Muslim parishes in the Russian Federation or a one time action.

            And on the other, because that is so, speculation is rife about what is going on. Most observers suggest it is Moscow’s response to suggestions by Ruslan Kutayev, the head of the Assembly of Peoples of the Caucasus and one of the five non-Russians on the Russian Platform at PACE, that Muslims are ready to take power in Moscow (ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/04/27/mibudem-kontrolirovat-moskvu-bivshii-vitse-premer-chechni-zayavil-chto-musulmane-gotovi-vzyat-vlast-vrossii-a193864).

              That is certainly plausible, although it is worth noting that Kurayev has made a variety of radical statements like this over the last decade and was not subject to arrest although he was forced to emigrate (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2018/06/a-north-caucasus-republic-will-emerge.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/05/north-caucasians-aspire-to-have-one-of.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2026/04/best-option-for-north-caucasian-peoples.html).

            Others have suggested that this is a Moscow move against Gainutdin (https://t.me/rybar/80400) and that the Kremlin may finally have decided to crush dissent within the Muslim community and make it as loyal to itself as is the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

              If that is the case, the Russian authorities will have to do more than arrest a few dozen Muslim leaders given that Islam does not have clergy or a clerical hierarchy that Moscow can hope to control. Consequently, if these arrests do presage a new Moscow move against Islam, they are likely to presage widespread resistance.