-6

Recently, The grand mufti of Russia (the topmost Muslim cleric) has suggested to Putin of Russia to annex Israel and Mecca:

I suggested to Vladimir Putin to deal with Israel as the Crimea. Suppose that Mecca will be Russian, it is the will of Allah to live together in peace, love and harmony — IBTimes quoting Yod News.

Presidential spokesman Peskov has obviously attempted to turn it to a joke. However, there are several considerations suggesting that Russians can have plans towards Israel and Saudi Arabia:

The grand mufti of Russia is a respected politician figure. He can't afford random bareword statements, since everything he speaks is backed by the opinion of a large Muslim community (14%, or 20 million) on the territory of today's Russia.

There were multiple occasions when high-ranked Russian officials made some unbelievable claims that turned true after a while:

Hence, the question: Are there any constituencies for the Russia's claims on Israeli territory?

Improve this question
8
  • 8
    You can find a constituency for any crazy agenda in any arbitrary country, including e.g. for making a new Moon made out of green cheese in Liechtenstein.
    – Count Iblis
    Nov 25, 2015 at 20:40
  • 2
    It's not unheard of to hear top-100 politicians making claims for green cheese moons.
    – user1530
    Nov 25, 2015 at 21:45
  • 5
    Your four quotes have nothing at all to do with Israel. Quotes 1, 3 & 4 only point that Russian fixation with some ex-SU territories is nothing new (and we already knew). Quote 2 is even less relevant, unless you suggest a Russian link to the bombings (chose any important city in the world, sooner or later a terrorist attack or major catastrophe will fail... the trick is ignoring all the failed predictions). For quote 4, I do not think "semi-official gangs" (whatever they are) qualify for "top-100 politicians".
    – SJuan76
    Nov 25, 2015 at 22:08
  • 1
    To put my previous comment in perspective, George H.W. Bush made lots of declarations about the need to invade Iraq, and he finally did invade Iraq. But that does not mean that he followed to the letter all of his declarations.
    – SJuan76
    Nov 25, 2015 at 22:11
  • 1
    I understand the question, but you cannot make the logic leap that because a picked set of declarations were later fulfilled, then all of the declarations will be fulfilled (or even that they will try to fulfil them). See my comment about GHW Bush if you did not get that. Add to that, none of the quotes is from the Mufti, and that the second quote is completely irrelevant unless you suggest a direct link (do you?) between Zhirinovsky quote and the Paris bombings. And yes you want to make the Russians look like scarier, but things like that only make the question dumber.
    – SJuan76
    Nov 26, 2015 at 0:13

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

If one ever read the whole passage, one should realize that Talgat Tacetdin (i.e. grand mufti) talked mostly about a slightly different thing. But as people only read what some "IBTimes" quote, I should make it clear.

He spoke rather pro "panarabian" / "muslim" idea of the grand unite state with Russia as its heart. He said actually about "Russia until Mecca" (including Jerusalem with al-Aqsa, of course).

Having said this, I hope, you realize now what ideas / constituencies are behind this, and why it can't have any consequences in Russia's foreign policy.

Improve this answer
4
  • Hmm, interesting. "grand unite state" — so, Russia and ISIS both set the same strategic goal?
    – Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
    Nov 26, 2015 at 10:32
  • 6
    @bytebuster Just trolling or what? This is not Russia's goal, it's an attempt of "loyalist" muslims to emphasize their importance. Besides, "Grand Khalifate" is not just IS's idea, you may find some variant of it virtually in any islamic state. Think of Saudi Arabia, former United Arab Republic etc.
    – Matt
    Nov 26, 2015 at 12:59
  • I'm trying to understand how "Grand Khalifate" of "Russia until Mecca" can count as a legal background. The answers to relevant Q about ISIS explain it in a very similar way.
    – Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
    Nov 26, 2015 at 14:01
  • 3
    @bytebuster Coz it's an old wish to unite again what was divided once. Now there are dozens of countries sharing (almost) same language, religion and culture, which were a one state many years ago. Not a surprise that any powerful regional player may once proclaim itself as "all-world muslim leader", as IS did. But the point is that Russia never dreamt of such a role. So Kremlin tolerates mufti's speeches as long as he keeps up a good work in internal affairs, yet only takes his words as a joke.
    – Matt
    Nov 26, 2015 at 14:38

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .