Problems in North Caucasus So Complicated that Moscow has Handed the Region to the Siloviki and the Siloviki have Reduced All of Them to Islam, Mukhametov Says

Paul Goble

    Staunton, May 7 – The North Caucasus is so complicated and its problems so numerous that Moscow has decided to hand over the region to Russian siloviki and just wait for better days and the siloviki in turn have reduced everything to a question about Islam, something that distorts the situation, Rinat Mukhametov says.

    The respected specialist on Islam, who edits the NeRussky telegram channel (https://t.me/ar_mukhametov) says that this simplification keeps the authorities from addressing the various problems because the siloviki insist that everything is about Islam (kavkazr.com/a/severnyy-kavkaz-otdali-na-otkup-silovikam-islamoved-ob-otnosheniyah-mezhdu-vlastyami-muftiyatami-i-zhitelyami-respublik/33404421.html).

    That simply is not the case. There are all kinds of problems including disputes about lands, corruption, criminality and splits not only between the Salafites and the Sufis but also within each of those and even with single tariqats and muftiates. Reducing everything to Muslims versus Russians misses the point.

    He cites without naming a senior Russian official who compared work with an ordinary region and with a North Caucasus one. In the former, he had to open a safe in order to solve problems; but in the North Caucasus, he found that on opening a large safe, he found a large number of other safes which had to be opened to solve anything.

    That is simply too much for Moscow to deal with, Mukhametov says; and for the last 30 years, the Kremlin has simply handed over the region to the siloviki who want to present things as simply as possible so that their use of force is justified, something Moscow is prepared to accept “until better times” come and make a different approach possible.

    But this Moscow approach, the specialist on Islam says, obscures the reality that “the situation in the North Caucasus is a reflection and continuation of what is taking place in the rest of Russia. The situation there is not something special. In other forms and under different names, everything is occurring or will occur through the entire country.”