Moscow Must Take Harsh Measures Now to Counter Islamization of Dagestan or Risk an Explosion, Russia’s Nationalities Agency Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Mar. 3 – Russia’s Federal Agency for Nationality Affairs says that Moscow must take harsh measures now against the further Islamization of Dagestan or risk an explosion in that North Caucasian republic, according to a report by Germany’s Spiegel magazine that has been picked up by Russian and Ukrainian outlets.
    The original German report, “Putin’s Fear of Dagestan,” is available at spiegel.de/ausland/internes-kreml-dokument-putins-angst-vor-dagestan-a-26847612-47d0-4897-9514-e9cfad22f608. It has been summarized and commented upon by akcent.site/eksklyuziv/39503 and dialog.ua/russia/310270_1740935841).
    The article stress that Dagestan is “on the brink of a social explosion” because of decaying infrastructure and corruption but appears likely to explode in the near future because of the continuing Islamization of the population, a development that may force Putin to turn his attention to that republic in the near future.
    The Russian nationality affairs agency calls for introducing a ban on religious leaders serving in government positions and their immediate replacement by veterans of the war in Ukraine and for prohibiting Islamic dress in the republic’s schools, actions that could easily spark a backlash in what is the most Muslim of the non-Russian republics in Russia today.
    The trigger for such a backlash could come soon: the agency is also calling for dismissing the leadership of the republic’s Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD) whose head Moscow has long viewed as a moderate who has helped Russia keep the lid on there but who is now pushing a tough Islamist line that threatens Moscow’s control of the republic.