On October 10, 2010, Imam Isomitdin Akbarov of the Novourenskaya Mosque ‘Nur Islam’ was killed in Tyumen. This murder is significant because it is one of the first killings of Islamic preachers outside the North Caucasus, where they informally justified the need to resist the armed underground, including the elimination of religious figures who shared a common religious or theological platform.
A year before the murder, a systematic demonization of the community and its Imam began in the media, which turned out to be an informational «artistic preparation» for the subsequent murder. After the murder of the Imam, the authorities tried to liquidate the organization through legal procedures, but they were unable to do so at the time, after which illegal pressure began to be exerted on its members. As a result, the community was officially liquidated and the mosque, where thousands of local Muslims had been praying for many years, was demolished» («Silantyev’s List»).
Since its announcement and for many years, the official version of this murder has been criminal. They claim that some bandits killed an Islamic religious figure during criminal confrontations. It is unclear what the motive was, but obviously something was wrong — such explanations for «strange» murders of Islamic preachers were popular among the security forces and their propaganda supporters at that time. After several years, however, someone seems to have let it slip.
For example, an article published in «Nezavisimaya gazeta» last summer presented Isomitdin Akbarov not as a victim of criminals, but as a criminal himself who had been «eliminated» by the security forces: «Akbarov served legally as an imam on the Yamal Peninsula, while in his native Uzbekistan he was wanted for terrorism. In 2010, Akbarov was killed in a special operation in Tyumen.
Recently, we were able to find the author of this article — Arthur Priymak, who did not introduce himself in the article, but did not deny authorship during online communication with the editor-in-chief of «Golos Islama». Unfortunately, Mr. Priymak stopped communicating as soon as he was asked to provide us with the sources who told him that Imam Isomitdin Akbarov was killed «in the course of a special operation» and not in a «criminal showdown». However, based on the content of his article and the direction of his other publications on Islamic issues, we can make some assumptions about this.
Judging by his publications, Mr. Priymak can rightfully join the ranks of such «friends of Muslims» as Vyacheslav Maltsev (by the way, his former colleague), Rais Suleymanov, Yana Amelina, Alexey Grishin, and so on. By the way, the words of the latter make up a significant part of Mr. Priymak’s article. What does this former curator of Islam under Vladislav Surkov, who has not been able to recover from this setback in his career for a year, and who muses in the media that «it’s not the same now,» have to say? Let’s give him the floor: «…when Vladislav Surkov was in charge of domestic policy, a whole system of work with Islam was created on Stary Square.
The main body was the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, the second was the FSB, and the third was the regional administrations. All levels kept an eye on each other and did not allow corruption and other distortions. In other words, translating from Grishin’s into Russian, according to his words, during his tenure as curator, the activities of the special services related to Islam were controlled by Surkov, and therefore by him, who was his deputy. And they did not allow any «distortions.
This means that everything that happened in this sphere at that time was part of a policy that was at least coordinated with the Kremlin. Who then authorized the «special operation» in the form of the assassination of the most popular imam in Siberia, who was hanged by criminal circles? After all, it happened at the very moment when Grishin was overseeing Islamic policy in Russia…».