Challenge the security of Russia. Islamism as a factor in the escalation of ethnic conflicts
Bickford effect
Fourteen centuries of Islam exists - the youngest of all world religions and the second most popular after Christianity in Russia. According to the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation, today 20 of millions of Russians are followers of Islam.
Double of the Kosovo project
Meanwhile, no one knows the true number of believers. A population that regards itself as a Christian, a Jew, or representatives of other faiths, is in fact not so religious and adheres to a greater ideological freedom. But Muslim society is more consistent in its commitment to its religion, from birth to death, many Muslims live their lives, being fanatically ready for self-sacrifice in the name of Allah. It is worth noting that with a high demographic potential, Muslims numerically grow at a steadily fast pace.
According to the forecast of the Carnegie Foundation, by virtue of the high demographic potential of the Muslim population and the immigration inflow, mainly from Muslim countries, by the 2030 year, half of the population of Russia will be Muslim. That is, our already born grandchildren will become an ethnic minority. For a multinational Russia, in which representatives of different ethnic groups and religions have lived in the world for good neighborliness, the preponderance of Muslim peoples can be of great importance. Would not, under the strong influence of radical politicized Islam, Russia be a duplicate of the Kosovo project, only more extensive and with broader consequences?
The essence of Islam and its schools in theoretical terms is difficult to comprehend for adherents of other religions, especially for atheists or agnostics. At the discussion level, partial errors and discrepancies are possible. Our task does not include the analysis of trends in the culture of the Islamic faith. We are interested in the challenges and threats to international and national security that are directly related to the most radical trend in Islam - Islamism.
With all the heterogeneity of Islamic beliefs, with all internal differences, the Muslim world is very united. Therefore, extremist forces, obsessed with the idea of recreating the great Islamic caliphate, have many supporters. This means that for the foreseeable future, the Islamic factor will be a priority when setting the agenda for many forums and international organizations.
Encyclopedic sources give the following definition of Islamism: it is a religious-political ideology and practical activities aimed at creating conditions under which any contradictions within the state where there is a Muslim population, as well as interstate relations with their participation, will be solved on the basis of Sharia norms. Therefore, Islamism is sometimes called a totalitarian ideology that offers solutions to the complex issues of modern life by medieval methods.
The distinctive features of Islamism include the imperative understanding of Allah as the supreme power, the requirement to return to the way of life and religion in the form that was given by the prophet (without subsequent accretions), the observance of active faith, rituals and traditions of the primordial ancestors, all secular superstructures and the unrestricted use of intimidation and violence to achieve their goals, including terror, whereby terrorism is often associated with Islam.
In this construction, Islamism is opposed to Islam itself in its modern form, adapted to the conditions of more or less secular states (that is, free from the influence of religion). Suffice it to say that the so-called Arab Spring came precisely to those states in which the level of secularism by the standards of Islam was exceeded. Only those among them, in which the modernization of the state-political system has not gone too far, retain, albeit tense, but still stability. It is impossible to resist the destructive influence of Islamism on the modern world order without knowing the reasons for it.
Emphasis on worldview
As a phenomenon of wider significance than the fact of a particular religion, Islamism has manifested itself in recent decades. At the end of the twentieth century, the world community was hotly arguing about globalization as a challenge to international security. The knowledge of this process continues in new perspectives. It turns out that among the threats that were considered to be caused by the state of the economy, the exhaustion of resources, growing unemployment and poverty in the populous rogue states, a new factor has emerged - a politicized religious component that can play an independent role. In the context of globalization, this role manifests itself in space and time almost synchronously (for example, the “Arab Spring” in the Middle East and the Pacific Region).
With an aggressive outbreak of Islamism, instead of purely economic and social conditions, the emphasis is shifted to the ideological level. Today, the Islamists say: “You, unbelievers and infidels, own the main reserves of raw materials and unfairly manage them. You are mired in sin, drunkenness, and drug addiction. Your symbols of equality and freedom are perverted to debauchery. Your church is deceitful. Your laws are inactive. Only Islam and Sharia law can ensure order and justice for all. ”
If these theses were voiced during a direct discussion, it would be difficult to answer adequately to many of them.
Indeed, the Western policy of multiculturalism suffered a defeat. Instead of the high achievements of civilization and the opportunity to become their creator, it presented the Muslim community not its best side - double standards in politics, corruption and free manners in high life, indifference to one’s neighbor under the guise of personal freedom of everyone. Thus, a cynical gap between the proclaimed and actually professed human values has been demonstrated.
Without pretending to the indisputability of the thesis about the crisis of world religions, we note that objectively Christianity is going through hard times all over the world. The problems of the Church are inevitably translated into society. They are generated by numerous scandals related to the violation of vows by clergy in the Catholic, Anglican, Protestant branches of Christianity. As pastors, not much was allowed to say to the cathedral church service (!), But also to those who belong to the subculture of non-traditional minorities. Orthodoxy demonstrates the same weaknesses together with the cult of luxury among priests. The latter, loving all that is beautiful and precious, in their sermons condemn the sinful desire of man for material goods. Most recently, the mentioning of the sin of Sodom was indecent, today Europe is de jure and de facto gripped by the insanity of change in marriage. Are not there reasons to condemn modern society as having reached the very bottom of the fall? And all these reasons Islamism skillfully uses.
Previously, differences in the behavior of representatives of the Islamic and non-Islamic religions were reduced to differences in rituals, clothing and food. Today, the dividing line lies predominantly on attitudes towards moral standards, unshakable in Islam and devalued in the gentile and secular psychology. In Islam, the desecration of sacred values and concepts threatens with the physical destruction of a person who has encroached upon the shrines (let us remember the artists and writers who have passed in the works of the acceptable limit). In other religions, this is no more than a pretext for cultural urological controversy (pornography in Cologne Cathedral or the trick of “performance musicians” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior).
Laws in secular states are written and enforced by people. Errors in law enforcement, their excessive humanity or rigidity is also a consequence of subjective consciousness and behavior. In different states, violations of the rules (including criminal acts) are classified differently, the laws are unstable. In modern Russia, it also happens that the law has not yet come into force, and amendments are being made to it. In contrast to the secular Sharia law “given from above” - is a set of eternal, universal rules, provides for the equality of all before Allah and Sharia. In all Muslim communities, its interpretation and application are identical, which is demonstrated as an advantage of the Islamic world order.
However, the main reason for the radicalization of Islam is, in our opinion, the desire of radical Islamic circles to expand their territorial presence, to seize new lands, world wealth and the masses of the population. This is called the creation of a world caliphate.
But how does Islamism manifest itself in Russia and does it threaten its security?
Doubtful favor
On the territory of modern Russia, Islam appeared already in the VII century, that is, immediately after its inception in 610 – 613 AD. The ways of its penetration are different. Islam was brought to the Volga region along with merchant bales from the Central Asian regions. Its formation was facilitated by the Golden Horde conquest and long Tatar-Mongol domination.
Due to the fact that after the Baptism of Russia the state religion became Orthodoxy, the confession of other religions by the conquered peoples was not encouraged by the state authorities, but was not prosecuted. True, it concerned only the common people, and the imams, khans and Murza were in disfavor.
According to the findings of modern Islamic scholarship during the period of the reign of Empress Catherine the Great, there was not so much the violent Christianization of the non-Russian peoples of the Russian Empire, but their violent Islamization. When the throne reeled under the empress because of the growing popular discontent, she, fearing the spread of Pugachevism, decided to win over the Muslim class. According to her order, the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims was created in Ufa, a significant salary was determined from the treasury to the Islamic servants, their social status was raised, and with it the influence on the Muslim population. The recognition of Islam has become an obvious fact. Followed by the rapid flourishing of its institutions. The number of mosques increased more than 57 times and reached 6763. Such a surge was not observed even in the sterile Islamic statehood of Iran.
The subsequent sovereigns did not weaken attention to the Islamic factor. So, with the approval of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich in the 1850 year, at the expense of the treasury, the Principles of Muslim jurisprudence were published. The idea of this work was that the national policy of the state should take into account the peculiarities of the ethnos, studied with examples of the colonial policies of the West. The governors of the king in the Muslim territories reacted to the publication with restraint. They could not fail to pay attention to the following key message, formulated in the "Beginnings ...": "All the states and countries in which the Muslim faith was established are governed by the same laws, which all derive from the same source, which is the Quran ". To this work and today turned the eyes of researchers of Islam. This is certainly an interesting study, and yet it is a generalized experience of Islamic law in the colonies. And the Muslims of Russia were full-fledged citizens of the empire, the integrity of which was ensured, including the unity of legislation.
Islam favors continued until the 1917 year. For seven decades, revolutionary consciousness has firmly replaced all religions. In the eighties of the twentieth century with the winds of restructuring in Russia came deideologization, freedom of religion and freedom in the truest sense. It was the Muslim states of Central Asia who were the first to separate from the USSR (of course, the Balts left the Soviet Union earlier, but the nature of their separation was different). Thoughts on sovereignty began to capture the minds of the leaders of national autonomies in the Russian Federation itself. The new Russian bureaucracy, unwittingly, used Yekaterininsky experience of soft coercion to loyalty: the imams, according to the muftis themselves, received a good salary from the state. Mosques and madrasas are multiplying in the national republics, Islamic universities are opening.
Despite the fact that Islam favored Islam, today the influence of imams on the minds of believers does not meet the interests of society, since not all of them have managed to become leaders. Muslims began to look for a solution to the personnel problem abroad. In Islam, the liturgical and sacred is considered only one language - Arabic. All over the world, an Islamic preacher will be understood both while serving in a mosque and at a lecture from the department of the Islamic University. Therefore, in our institutions preachers and Islamic scholars from Algeria, Indonesia, Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan and other missionaries are freely missionary. Thus, new spiritual leaders came to our country’s territory, for whom Russia was not their homeland, whose worldview was not connected with it.
Causes of internal and external
Among the internal factors affecting the modern radicalization of Islam are, first of all, the sharp differentiation of social groups after the unfair privatization of state property, as well as the collapse of the production sphere, unemployment and the impoverishment of the population. The culprits of all this were the atheists, the unfaithful and conformist secular leadership. Against this background, the authority of the muftis, the imams, began to rise above state institutions. A serious problem turned out to be the unemployment and the futility of the future for the most socially active population in the republics of the North Caucasus.
Another reason for radicalization is the outflow of the Russian-speaking (mainly Slavic) population, which played a connecting role in a multi-ethnic society. According to various estimates, 1989 – 2002 left thousands of people from the North Caucasus in the 415 – 420 years. This figure is reasonably questioned, since only in Chechnya and only during the period of military conflict did the share of Russians decrease by more than 30 times, that is, by 280 – 300 thousand people.
The absence of ideology and a unifying national idea, the aggravation of mutual territorial claims within the Muslim community, on the basis of which radical moods and extremism arose, corruption and deafness of power to the needs of the common man - all this was among the reasons for the radicalization of Islam in the newest Russian stories. Corruption and lawlessness have reached the ultimate level. In some cases, the population demanded management from the federal center and did not meet with understanding. The preachers, meanwhile, offered an alternative - promoting the creation of a world caliphate, that is, states with such undeniable values as equality, social justice and sharia regulation of all aspects of life.
The political forces in these conditions were not negotiable. For corporate interests, they did not want to see a common threat emanating from a cohesive and aggressive Islamist front, highly motivated by the idea of creating a single state, inspired daily by the feat against the infidels. And this against the background, when a growing number of mosques and madrasahs, as well as cultural and educational centers, not only is motivated by the revival of faith, but also contributes to the consolidation of radical sentiments, becoming a kind of ideological centers influencing the political processes in their region.
In Russia over the past 20 years, the number of mosques has increased 72 times: in Tatarstan there are more than 1100, Bashkortostan - 470, Chechnya - 465, Ingushetia - 300, Dagestan - over 2000 (in 1989, in this republic there were 27). Experts believe that Dagestan is the center of Islamism in the Russian Federation, promoting it to other regions of the country.
As for the external factors contributing to the radicalization of Islam in Russia, then, of course, first of all it concerns the freedom of movement around the world. The opened picture of the world showed Muslims that not a single society in which power belongs to the “infidel” does not correspond to ideals. With the opening of borders, Muslims had the opportunity to receive education abroad. An increasing number of Muslims has become an accessible dream of making a hajj, since this dream is being carried out with foreign donations. In Soviet times, only a few dozen people from all over the Union could afford it, now - tens of thousands. For example, in 2012, 20,7, thousands of Muslims from 55 regions of Russia became pilgrims.
The radicalization of Islam in the Russian Federation is promoted not only by the involvement of all Muslims in such a transnational project as the creation of a world caliphate, but also by armed conflicts with their participation. Russia takes a position opposite to them or neutral to the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood (for example, in Serbia over Kosovo, in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan - with their internal opposition, in the Arab-Israeli confrontation, in Afghanistan etc.).
Islamic experts studying the causes of the radicalization of Islam within Russian Islam believe that the “clumsy” policy of the central government, illiterate actions of the army, undiplomatic and ignorant tactics of the regional leadership, which led to undermining the prestige of the government as a guarantor of the security of citizens, are to blame. It was the short-sighted policy of the federal center that led to the transformation of ordinary separatism into nationalism with terrorist manifestations, and religion in the regions quickly became radicalized. In the history of the Caucasian peoples, religion has repeatedly become the banner of both national and social protest.
Muslim country
Immigration has a great influence on the growth of the number of Muslims. This is largely facilitated by the “leaky” migration policy of the Russian Federation, which by its passivity only stimulates the influx of foreigners, mostly Muslims.
Today, the overpopulation of immigrants in many regions of Russia has become a fact that does not require proof, and creates many problems of a socio-economic, religious and domestic political nature.
It is not just the national composition that is changing, but the cultural code of a secular state itself. Residents of Russian cities are traditionally multinational, but they are not ready to accept the specific features of the rituals arising from Muslim canons (namaz on squares, ritual sacrifices, invocations of muezzins, hijabs, niqabs, etc.).
Attempts by the Moscow authorities to familiarize migrants with Russian culture failed. The program “Museums for Migrants”, created in 2012, in which visitors were supposed to be acquainted with the history and culture of Moscow, was unclaimed: migrants did not go to museums. Moreover, they understood this proposal as a workload and demanded an appropriate remuneration - from 300 to 500 rubles per visit.
In megacities, educational institutions are overflowing with representatives of other states and ethnic groups, for whom study is impossible in the educational and economic sense. This reduces the overall level of education provided by the school, since the study time for the rest of the students is irrational.
Medical care for migrants costs the Russian taxpayer. In Russian orphanages, a growing number of children who refuse migrants from Central Asian states. Women who gave birth out of wedlock are afraid of shame in their homeland and do not want to support and raise their children.
The inability of immigrants to reckon with the local way of life, their unwillingness to cognitively and respectfully relate to culture and language, the burden on the social sphere at the expense of Russian taxpayers cause quite understandable rejection of the indigenous population. Unfortunately, the power instead of finding specific solutions to the problem is limited to a ban on its public discussion. From this, the threat of interethnic tension does not become less, as the interests of representatives of all social and national strata — indigenous and immigrants — remain disadvantaged.
All this contributes to the growth of nationalist sentiments among the indigenous population, which is no better than Islamist extremism, arousing fear of the intervention of a foreign, unfriendly culture. A critical look at the behavior of the “aliens” is mechanically transferred to “our own” ...
The effect of Bickford fuse cord is ready to work at any time.
Anatoly Kulikov,
President of the Club of Military Commanders of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Economics, Army General
Religious Terrorism Prevention
At present, we are fixing a number of new factors and manifestations testifying to a further change in the nature of terrorist manifestations.
The active propaganda of radical ideology by terrorists using both religious organizations and religious institutions, as well as modern means of communication - social networks, thematic Internet sites allows you to recruit new supporters remotely, to promote the emergence of independent terrorist cells, as well as single terrorists.
The bombings in Boston are an extremely alarming signal, indicating the possibility of the emergence of autonomous terrorist formations on the territory of even the so-called prosperous states.
At the heart of such manifestations is the phenomenon of self-radicalization. Terrorist recruiters do not directly psychological processing of potential supporters, but create conditions for the primary interest and independent acquisition by interested persons of the knowledge necessary to participate in terrorist activities.
The likelihood of scaling scenarios like the Boston one enhances the emerging process of active participation of representatives of various states, including European, in armed conflicts in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. Assimilation of the militants to the conditions of the so-called developed countries and their citizenship of European and other states give a special danger to this situation.
A special operation conducted by security agencies in Orekhovo-Zuevo, Moscow Region, shows the relevance of this trend for Russia. The activities of a group of three militants who planned to commit an act of terrorism in Moscow were stopped (two were killed in the course of resistance, one was detained). All the criminals are Russian citizens, they came from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, where they underwent combat training.
ABC novice "bomber"
At the end of last year, 316 crimes of a terrorist nature were recorded, the overwhelming majority of which are connected with the activities of a bandit underground in the North Caucasus. Over 60 percent of their total number committed in the Republic of Dagestan. Tensions are noted in the Republic of Ingushetia, in the Kabardino-Balkarian and Chechen Republics.
Despite the measures taken to neutralize the criminal activities of gangs, the process of their reproduction practically does not stop. It is obvious that only forceful methods of struggle are incapable of eliminating this phenomenon to the full. The threat will persist as long as there is a system for reproducing the infrastructure of terrorism, the key elements of which are the ideology of terrorism, the instigators and carriers of the terrorist idea, as well as its distribution channels.
Our main task is to, against the background of preserving and strengthening the force component of the struggle against specific terrorist manifestations, drastically increase the effectiveness of countering the ideology of terrorism, and put reliable barriers to its penetration into public consciousness.
At present, the terrorists have chosen and primarily used the ideology of radical Islam (the so-called Islamism) to create an ideological platform for their activities.
The main ideological tenets of the leaders of the bandit underground used to attract new members are the rejection of the values not only of secular society, but also of traditional Islam, the priority of using extremist and terrorist methods to combat them. Also in the set of "ideology" of the Islamists is the planting in the ranks of his supporters and individuals subjected to psychological treatment, a complex of "offenses" for the "genocide that lasts for centuries and the oppression of titular nations" by the "culturally, ethnically and spiritually alien imperial federal center." Distrust of the federal and regional authorities as corrupt entities that are unable to ensure the realization of the interests of the population and solve acute socio-economic and political problems is widely supported. This justifies the need to create parallel power structures, whose activities are based on the canons of Shari'a, and intended to carry out not only spiritual and moral, but also legal, as well as administrative and administrative functions.
The system of views imposed by extremists is for many, especially young people, quite attractive because of the simplicity and uniqueness of their postulates, promises to immediately see the end result of their aggressive actions. The need for personal participation in the complex and painstaking process of economic, political and social development of the country and society is replaced by primitive calls for the complete destruction of existing foundations and replacing them with utopian projects. Instead of a time-consuming and lengthy study of theological and philosophical sciences, which allow to form a complete picture of the world and religion, the ideologists of terrorism propose a set of carefully selected quotations from the Koran and the Hadith, justifying the need for constant struggle against kafirs and munafik.
Counteraction to the spread of terrorist teachings with a religious tint is being built in the Russian Federation as part of the general system of countering the ideology of terrorism.
By the decision of the President of the Russian Federation, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee has been identified as the main coordinator of activities to counter the ideology of terrorism in the country, combining the efforts of twenty government agencies. In everyday mode, the coordination function is provided by its permanent body - the committee's staff.
In the regions, this work is entrusted to the antiterrorist commissions in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and at the local level - to the antiterrorist commissions in municipalities. The practical role of the latter is exceptionally high: it is their representatives who have sustained everyday contact with the population, the possibilities for conducting targeted work with specific citizens subject to the influence of radical ideologies.
The created system allows the integration of the efforts of the authorities both vertically - from the federal to the municipal level, and horizontally, using the capabilities of the authorities, above all the civil one, and not just the power unit. Structures that implement state policy in the field of education, culture, sports, work with youth, etc. are connected to counteracting the ideology of terrorism.
Against extremist ideology
At present, a new work plan has been adopted to address the main tasks of countering the ideology of terrorism. These include, first of all, an explanation of the essence of terrorism and its extreme public danger, as well as the holding of active measures to create a strong public rejection of the ideology of terrorism in its various manifestations, including religious and political extremism. In addition, we are talking about creating and using mechanisms to protect the information space of the Russian Federation from penetrating any ideas that justify terrorist activities, as well as creating and improving legislative, regulatory, organizational and other mechanisms that contribute to the effective implementation of measures to counter the ideology of terrorism.
As part of the plan, the necessary support is provided to those social structures whose activities are aimed at increasing the level of inter-religious and inter-ethnic trust. Such organizations exist in every region and their importance cannot be overestimated. In addition, each subject of the Russian Federation has its own unique projects.
Separately, it should be noted the creation of commissions in a number of republics of the North Caucasus to adapt to peaceful life of persons who have decided to stop terrorist activities. These structures, which include representatives of various authorities, including law enforcement agencies, demonstrate the actual readiness of the state to engage in dialogue with persons who recognize the infidelity and hopelessness of their activities, and contribute to the actual withdrawal of people "from the forest." Thanks to such preventive work, last year they voluntarily declared the termination of the terrorist activities of 52 people, and in four and a half months of this year, already 38.
Targeted events are held (meetings, methodological classes, conversations) with certain categories of citizens most exposed to the ideology of terrorism, including students and students, people from Muslim states, representatives of ethnic religious diasporas, persons serving sentences for extremist and terrorist activities, former members of gangs.
A positive tendency is the participation in them not only of representatives of executive bodies, but also of scientific and creative intelligentsia, authorities of religious and national communities.
The state and public institutions must work together to influence citizens' legal consciousness in such a way as to form an absolute, almost physiological rejection of the very idea of forcibly solving any tasks facing the society and its individual representatives.
Only by putting a reliable barrier in the path of the spread of the ideology of terrorism can we eradicate or reduce to a socially acceptable level one of the biggest threats of our time - the threat of terrorism and other extremist manifestations of a violent nature.
Evgeny Ilyin,
First Deputy Chief of Staff of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, PhD in Law, Lieutenant General
Conflict arc section
Today, the nature of the politicization of Islam, which became a decisive force at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, largely influences the nature of interethnic relations. The radicalization of many of his movements, professing the concept of “war with the infidels”, led to the aggravation of contradictions both within the Muslim world and with other world religions - Christianity, Judaism, etc.
Because of this, interethnic conflicts in various regions of the world, as well as on the territory of the post-Soviet space and Russia in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, were nothing more than the next stage (after Afghanistan) of the clashes of these religions. It is not by chance that in the theory of geopolitics today, the concept of a “conflict arc” is the most popular, denoting areas covering the continent of Eurasia from the south and southwest, in which an overwhelming number of armed clashes occur on ethnoconfessional basis.
Attention, the threat is activated
Many experts associate a new stage of escalation of ethnic conflicts at the turn of the XX – XXI centuries with the increasing globalization and further aggravation of geopolitical contradictions between the world centers of power, leading the struggle for the redivision of the world. The main vector of confrontation today is in the area of US relations with the forces of radical Islam.
An attempt to involve one or another state in this confrontation leads to the expansion of hotbeds of tension throughout the world (the Balkans, Afghanistan, the Middle East, North Africa and others). At the same time, events in the North Caucasus, as well as in certain regions of the post-Soviet space, especially in Central or Central Asia, are of increasing concern for the military-political leadership of Russia.
The further development of the military-political situation in these territories largely depends on the processes of political settlement of the events in Afghanistan, in whose territory about five to six million Tajiks currently live, 1,5 million Uzbeks, about one million Turkmen. In the event of an escalation of the armed conflict in Afghanistan, which is expected in 2014, after the withdrawal of the main forces of the international coalition, hostilities may spread to the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. The Russian Federation may be drawn into these conflicts with the resulting financial, human and moral costs.
Additional influence will be exacerbated by interethnic conflicts in the North Caucasus and the Volga region. In the future, the vectors of these threats may be aimed at splitting our country along the lines of Afghanistan - Tajikistan - Kyrgyzstan - Kazakhstan - on the one hand, driving a kind of wedge from the North Caucasus along the Volga - on the other, and further separating the Urals and Siberia from the European part of Russia, followed by fragmentation of its territory.
Taking into account the multi-ethnic and multi-religious nature of the population of the Russian Federation, this may lead to unpredictable consequences. A more serious threat in this regard is the North Caucasus, where more than 120 nations live. The destabilizing factors here are primarily ethnonational and territorial contradictions and conflicts (Georgia and South Ossetia, Georgia and Abkhazia, Chechnya and Dagestan, Ingushetia and North Ossetia). Experts believe that today in the North Caucasus there are about 70 local latent foci of interethnic tension. Given the clan-like relationship of the peoples of the North Caucasus, this problem may turn out to be insoluble.
Basis for new collisions
Crisis phenomena in the region in the field of ethno-confessional relations are connected with the corruption of local ruling elites, their professional incompetence and the inability to effectively counter terrorist and criminal groups. These problems became the object of close attention of Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of the Russian Federation.
In the course of the work of the council, the main threats that we face today are identified. There are a lot of factors for destabilization of the ethnic and confessional situation in Russia. At the same time, the Islamic factor is becoming decisive today and creates a potential basis for new conflicts and wars.
The country's leadership proposed an entire Strategy of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025 (Presidential Decree No. 1666 of 19.12.2012), in which it is proposed to implement a wide range of measures aimed at improving the situation. The implementation of this strategy rests on a number of serious management problems. First of all, this lack of a clear interdepartmental interaction on the implementation of this policy and weak prevention.
Therefore, the important task of ensuring the national security of Russia today is the problem of finding new, most effective ways to resolve conflict situations and prevent them from escalating into active combat zones.
Throughout the modern history of Russia, the attitude of the public to ethno-confessional problems has changed depending on how acutely these issues have been put on the agenda of the political life of our state. Until the beginning of the 90-ies of the XX century, this topic remained one of the little-studied in the domestic literature. In contrast to Western studies, in our science for a long time there was an opinion about the “resolution of this issue in the USSR”.
The possibility of a real scientific approach to understanding this problem appeared only after the collapse of the USSR, which turned into a tragic fate for millions of people in various regions of the country. But at the beginning of the XXI century, this problem began to go out of sight of the authorities, and then of science. It was decided to liquidate the Ministry of National Affairs, closed the department in schools that are actively engaged in ethno-religious relations.
They were replaced by other topics related to international terrorism, globalization, etc. According to some scholars, this was a kind of attempt to overlook the severity of the problem of the Islamic factor, which would be resolved by itself.
And at this time, as the migration processes in the world and Russia increased, the contradictions in this area were not only intensified, but also complicated by the complicated geopolitical situation and internal problems. As a result, today we are facing a new danger, which we have forgotten, and now, unfortunately, we do not fully represent its possible consequences. This explains some confusion of power in the first days after the events on Manezhnaya Square and a number of serious terrorist acts at Domodedovo airport and in the Caucasus.
The problem of ethno-confessional relations must be dealt with by all the authorities, and constantly, and not from time to time. This thought became the leading one in the report of the President of the Russian Federation at the meeting of the State Council, which took place immediately after the well-known events.
The solution of the problem of ethno-confessional relations lies to a greater extent beyond its borders. In real life, no such conflict manifests itself in its pure form. It will always carry on, on the one hand, political opposition, and on the other, economic and social.
Vladimir Suvorov,
Head of the Department of Public Administration and National Security of VAGSH, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor, full member of the Academy of Military Sciences, Major General
Stop social transformation
The Islamic factor has a significant impact on the formation of modern Russian society. And of course, the main threat to Russia is Islamic terrorism, extremism and radicalism. If you do not take action now, these forces will take control of the Volga region and the North Caucasus, which is fraught for Russia not only with the problem of refugees, but also with the threat of the dismemberment of the country, a cardinal undermining of the economy.
This problem should be solved at once in several directions.
1. Ensure the demand and employment of labor resources in the North Caucasus. In the cities, by restoring or creating new large industrial enterprises (like those that existed in the region before the beginning of the 90). In mountainous regions, creating small enterprises for processing agricultural products, developing local handicrafts, etc.
It should adjust the line to create new tourist areas. Investment in ski resorts is justified only in those places where you can guarantee security. In the area of Makhachkala and Kaspiisk there are objective conditions for creating a resort area like the one that exists on the Black Sea coast. Now the lands in this area, which are by law federal property, are seized and divided by local nouveau riche.
2. It is necessary to develop an effective youth policy taking into account religious and ethno-cultural peculiarities. Today, in the North Caucasus, young people are the main breeding ground for the spread of extremist ideas.
3. The creation of a domestic model of Muslim education is required, which would allow to seize the initiative from foreign centers in the field of full-time and distance learning. It is advisable to create an Islamic university for the entire Volga-Ural region, that is, outside the organizational or target destination for the national republics. Its location could be Nizhny Novgorod.
4. In parallel with changes in the system of Islamic education in areas inhabited by Muslims, it is necessary to develop a system of secular educational institutions. A fruitful idea is the development in the North Caucasus of educational institutions of the type of technical schools with the involvement of highly qualified teachers from other regions of Russia for training on the order of corporations and departments the necessary specialists, including their subsequent referral to work in other regions.
5. It is necessary to prepare a new generation of Islamic scholars who know the realities and languages of Russian Muslims. A program of regular comprehensive research on the traditions of Russian Muslims should be developed on the basis of cooperation of scientists from the federal center and regions, under the auspices and guidance of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences with appropriate financial support.
6. We need a well-thought-out information policy on Islamic issues, including the publication of printed materials (periodical, educational and analytical, analytical), the creation of websites and an Internet portal.
7. Measures are required for a significant organizational and material strengthening of existing organizations - the Foundation for Support of Islamic Culture, Science and Education and the Russia-Islamic World Strategic Vision Group (especially in terms of organizing contacts with Islamic movements and parties abroad on an ongoing basis).
8. In order to reduce migration flows from the south of Russia and from neighboring Islamic countries, it is necessary to pay special attention to the acute problem of reducing the number of Russian population.
Thus, we will be able to reverse the existing negative trend of social transformation of society and outline the positive vector of its development.
Viktor Barynkin,
Chairman of the VAGSh Doctoral Council, Colonel General
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