‘The flow of migrants must stop’

A religious dispute in a Moscow suburb ends with both sides asking Putin for protection

Moscow has millions of Muslim residents but only four mosques, leading many to rely on smaller, and sometimes less official, prayer houses for their worship. After a popular xenophobic, pro-war Telegram channel recently reported one of these centers to the authorities, however, Russian riot police conducted an aggressive raid of the premises, causing congregants to fear for their security. The incident sparked dueling video addresses to Vladimir Putin from the neighborhood’s Muslim and non-Muslim communities. Meduza explains the conflict over how far — and to whom — religious freedom should extend in Russia.

On July 10, members of the Muslim community of Kotelniki, a town in Russia’s Moscow region, released a video statement addressed to Vladimir Putin asking him to grant them protection from the country’s security forces. On July 7, they said, riot police had entered their prayer house, which is located in an apartment building, during Friday prayers. “Without removing their outside shoes, they burst into the premises, where people were praying, and, with screams and uncensored expressions, they applied physical force, showing no regard for the worshipers,” said one of the men. According to community leader Salavat Ibatullin, most of the group’s members are Russian citizens. He also said that when the officers were asked to explain what they were doing, they “sprayed the congregants with a fire extinguisher.”

“I want to add that our community opposes the violation of migration law. But we can’t track down violators of the law among our congregants; that must be done by the competent authorities outside of our community,” Ibatullin said. “Our congregation includes participants of the special military operation. When these people return home from the battlefield, they’re deeply offended to see such injustice taking place at home. [...] Mr. Putin, we appeal to you for protection. We ask you to intervene in this situation.”

The Moscow Region’s Muslim Spiritual Directorate also released a statement in which it called the raid “egregious in its audacity” and said it resembled an operation to apprehend dangerous criminals. It also noted that Kotelniki’s Muslim community is an “official local religious organization registered with the Russian Justice Ministry.”

Kirill Kabanov, a member of Russia’s Presidential Human Rights Council, said that at the root of the conflict is the fact that “a religious organization should not be located in a residential building.” On Fridays and holidays, he said, “it’s not just that it becomes impossible to drive through; residents can’t even walk through.”

According to the newspaper Kommersant, the riot police raid may have been in response to a complaint filed by members of an organization called Russian Community. The group’s popular Telegram channel, Russian Communication ZOV, which shares information about “crimes committed by migrants” and raises money for Russia’s troops in Ukraine, wrote on July 7: “At Russian Community’s request, police just visited two illegal mosques that were built directly in residential apartment buildings. They ‘took in’ more than 70 people. We’re awaiting their deportations.” The regular Moscow police told Kommersant that its employees did not take part in the raid.

After the Muslim community’s address to Putin, Russian Community ZOV shared another message to Putin, this time from Kotelniki residents. In it, they expressed their support for the raid on the prayer house and suggested that the Muslim community’s message to the president could cause “grievances against our law enforcement agencies.” They called for security officials to be “left alone” since their raid was a response to a complaint from citizens. “We must all understand that we can’t go on living like this; we’re not France, not Kosovo, which continue to descend into chaos. In our home, there should be order. The flow of migrants coming into our country must stop immediately. Otherwise there’s going to be a social explosion,” said one of the residents.

Konstantin Malofeev, the ultraconservative oligarch behind the Russian Orthodox TV station Tsargrad, spoke out in support of the anti-migrant activists. On his Telegram channel, he said he supports the “response of the native Kotelniki residents” who demanded that the “city’s guests get their hands off the riot police” and who “asked the authorities to continue bringing order.” He added that Russians have “never divided people by their skin color and their faith” but “our guests must respect the traditions of their Russian hosts.”

Kotelniki residents have complained publicly to Putin about the number of migrants in the city before. In a video they recorded in mid-May, they said that a “mosque” had been set up in an annex to an apartment building. According to the residents, it was officially registered as a cultural center but has been used for religious practices, and between 600 and 1,000 visitors regularly gather in an area 160 square meters (about 1,722 square feet) large.

The residents also said that they’re afraid to let their kids outside because the migrants, in their account, threaten them and harass young women. They told Putin that they were addressing him “on behalf of the few Russian residents left in the neighborhood.”

The local news site msk1.ru reported that on May 18, law enforcement officers searched the homes of the prayer house’s founders. The same day, the Investigative Committee’s department for the Moscow region reported that the territories of several residential buildings in the area had been inspected as part of a criminal case for alleged negligence, and that the “activities of the center mentioned in the citizens’ statement have been suspended.” It also said that investigators had filed 34 misdemeanor charges over “offenses committed by foreign citizens.” By late June, according to msk1.ru, the prayer house had reopened.

Translation by Sam Breazeale