Almost simultaneously with the publication of the second part of our interview with the famous Dagestani preacher Abu Umar Sasitlinsky, Russian law enforcement agencies launched a powerful information campaign aimed at discrediting him. Through hundreds of different media outlets, it was widely reported that the FSB had uncovered an underground group that had collected and transferred 38 million rubles from Russia to the so-called Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, both banned in Russia. The secret leader of this group was «revealed» to be Abu Umar Sasitlinsky himself, who pretends to be a peaceful preacher and philanthropist, but «in reality» manages to do what no one else can — simultaneously finance organizations that have been waging a fierce war against each other for years.
Yesterday, Abu Umar commented on this news to the «Novoe Vremya» channel. He described it as a noisy information campaign, noting that the law enforcement agencies did not disclose the names of any of the detainees. And this is presumably because none of those with whom he really cooperates was detained during the operation. In other words, it is clearly a pure PR campaign aimed at creating an unfavorable environment around the name of Abu Umar Sasitlinsky.
In this regard, the Sheikh suggested that this intimidating information campaign by the FSB was a response to his public refutation of allegations against him, particularly in his interview with our website. It is also worth noting that all of this is happening on the eve of a trial in which the Sheikh’s lawyers are attempting to challenge the unfounded charges against him.
Thus, the law enforcement agencies are clearly indicating that they intend to suppress any attempts by this popular preacher to return to the legal sphere, even while he is outside of Russia. This only confirms the assessments he gave in his interview to our website about the reasons for his persecution and the systematic policy of the Russian law enforcement agencies to neutralize all independent and authoritative figures in the Russian Islamic space.