In recent days in Russia, according to Telegram channels and preachers, several people associated with the Spiritual Administration of Muslims () of Russia have been arrested. The arrest of two people was officially confirmed: the Mufti of Mordovia, Rail Asenov, and the former Mufti of Karelia, Imam Fisam Ali Bardvel. In the first case we are talking about criminal prosecution, and in the second – about administrative prosecution. Information regarding the arrest of other Islamic religious figures has not been confirmed. We tell you what we know.
The first to report the arrests was blogger Orkhan Hasanzadeh, who calls himself a political scientist and international relations analyst. he books About this topic on May 19 in his channel on Telegram for 700 people. According to this data:
- In Saransk, five active members of the Mordovia Islamic community were also arrested;
- In Moscow – Imam of the South Butovo Mosque, former Mufti of Karelia;
- In St. Petersburg – Muslim preacher Muhammad Hani, who was born in 2007 accused In incitement to hatred between religions;
- In Saratov – Deputy Mufti of the Saratov Region, who is from Palestine, Nidal Al-Sheikh, appointed by the Federal Security Service in 2019 Sold out And a warning against “the inadmissibility of high treason.”
This information was later also published by a “military correspondent”, an employee of Komsomolskaya Pravda. Dmitry Station And the host of the TV show “Time will tell” on Channel One Ruslan Ostashko. Moreover, Ostashko claimed that representatives of the spiritual administration of the arrested Muslims “were found to be connected to the organization and foreign structures.” This information has not been confirmed.
TV propaganda channel “Tsargrad” maleThat his sources confirmed information about arrests in Mordovia and North Ossetia (no one reported anything else about North Ossetia). Religious scholar Roman Silantiev told the TV channel that the security forces worked with partners of the head of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims, Ravil Ginutin. There is also a telegram channel “Rybar” close to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation I mentionedThe detainees are linked to Ain al-Din’s entourage.
The next day, May 20, information about some arrests was confirmed. Tagansky District Court in Moscow I mentionedHe placed Wissam Ali Bardeville under administrative detention for 15 days on charges of disobeying the police. According to the Ministry of the Interior, on the evening of May 14 at Sheremetyevo Airport, Bardvil refused to show his passport to the police and tried to escape, and when he was put in an official car, he “showed active resistance.”
Deputy Mufti of Mordovia, Rashit Abdurshetov, confirmed that Mufti Rail Asaynov was arrested in a bribery case. The investigation believes that Asaynov offered a bribe to the head of the master’s program “Islamic Economics and Finance” at Mordovian State University, “so that the program’s students could pass the course.” A representative of the mufti said that “there was some kind of misunderstanding” and that bribes were “out of the question.”
In the past, law enforcement agencies had already paid attention to representatives of the Muslim spiritual administration. So, in August 2025, Moscow City Court Running In the list of extremist materials there is the encyclopedic dictionary “Islam in the North Caucasus” published by the Medina Publishing House and edited by Deputy Head of the Islamic Spiritual Directorate Damir Mukhtdinov. In management then malethat in the articles “Wahhabis in the North Caucasus” and “History of Islam in Chechnya” people involved in terrorist activities were mentioned.
In 2024, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia faced criticism for adopting a fatwa allowing religious polygamy. The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation warned the organization of the illegality of such a decision, after which the Islamic Spiritual Directorate withdrew the fatwa.