Kremlin once again ‘grounds’ Gainutdin

The head of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Ravil Gainutdin, has once again been «grounded» by the Kremlin for his uncoordinated and unrealistic statements.

On July 28, 2015, certain media outlets spread the information that «the leaders of Islamic countries will gather in Moscow for the opening of the restored Cathedral Mosque». Considering that such media campaigns can only be the result of deliberate public relations, i.e. the work of professional PR specialists, it is obvious that once again someone wanted to give himself undue importance.

However, someone did not think about the embarrassing situation in which they put the Kremlin with such loud statements. After all, when the leaders of the Islamic world come to Moscow, the head of state, Putin, should be the first to know.

Not surprisingly, the very next day, today, Kremlin spokesman Peskov declared that he «knows nothing about the preparations for such visits,» thus revealing the true value of the PR campaign.

In general, it is worth noting that the Council of Muftis of Russia, which has long abandoned all political positions in defense of Muslims (as evidenced by Gainutdin’s recent solidarity with Russia’s refusal to recognize the genocide of Muslims in Srebrenica), is clearly trying to use the technical event of the opening of the restored mosque as a lifeline. And it’s one thing if the Council of Muftis is trying to score points against its internal Russian competitors in the supervision of Islam, such as Tadzhuddin and others. But it becomes absurd when they accompany it with ridiculous claims to be the leader of the entire Islamic world, which, given the oppressed and downtrodden position of Russian Muslims, elicits nothing but laughter.