Kremlin Approves Building Fifth Mosque in Moscow, Simultaneously Giving Boost to Mufti Krganov and Promoting Religious Quiescence and Syncretism

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 25 – The Kremlin has given the go ahead for start of the construction of a fifth mosque in Moscow, a step that ignores the opposition of the city’s mayor, boosts the standing of Mufti Albir Krganov relative to other Muslim leaders in Russia, and promotes religious quiescence and syncretism by putting it alongside facilities for other traditional religious faiths.

            Krganov, who has been pushing for such a mosque since he arrived in the Russian capital from Chuvashia in 2010, is celebrating his victory, one that gives him a leg up on the other heads of the super-Muslim Spiritual Directorates who have long sought without success to build another mosque in Moscow (business-gazeta.ru/article/705412).

            (On Krganov’s standing and especially on his rise in the eyes of the Russian government relative to these others, see jamestown.org/moscows-arrests-of-muslim-spiritual-directorate-officials-likely-to-backfire/. For background on the fight over a fifth mosque in Moscow, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/12/muslims-plan-to-erect-fifth-major.html.)

            But the Kremlin’s agreement is not an unqualified victory for Krganov personally or for Islam. On the one hand, the authorities have insisted that the new mosque include elements of Russian Orthodoxy in its design and be located in a complex with Orthodox Christian, Jewish and Buddhist shrines.

            That appears to be a new part of the Kremlin’s strategy for dealing with calls by minority religions like Islam for more religious buildings, a strategy that has already been tested out elsewhere, most prominently in the southern Dagestani city of Derbent (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/04/derbent-to-erect-synagogue-mosque-and.html).

            And on the other hand, the Kremlin has also required that the mosque as part of this complex participate in civic educational projects and in the rehabilitation of veterans of Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine, both efforts that will limit the ability of Krganov to present this development as a personal triumph or for Muslims to view it that way as well.

            Moreover, Krganov acknowledges that the new mosque will be financed by contributions which have only begun to be collected and that its construction will take three or more years. That means what looks like a victory now may turn into another defeat, especially given continuing Russian opposition to the building of any more mosques in Moscow.