Two Muslim clerics arrested in Russia amid confusing, unconfirmed reports of wider crackdown

Over the past several days, Russian Telegram channels and pro-Kremlin commentators have reported that several people connected to the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of Russia have been detained. It has been officially confirmed that two people were detained: the Mufti of Mordovia, Rail Asainov, and the former Mufti of Karelia, Imam Wisam Ali Bardwil. The first case involves criminal charges; the second is administrative. Reports of detentions of other Muslim religious figures have not been confirmed. Here’s what we know, so far.

The first to report the detentions was Orkhan Gasanzade, a blogger who describes himself as a political scientist and international relations analyst. He wrote about it on May 19 in his Telegram channel, which has 700 subscribers. According to his account:

• In Saransk, Rail Asainov and five active members of the Muslim community of Mordovia were detained
• In Moscow, the imam of a mosque in Yuzhnoye Butovo and former Mufti of Karelia, Wisam Ali Bardwil
• In St. Petersburg, Muslim preacher Muhammad Henni, who in 2007 was accused of inciting interfaith hatred
• In Saratov, the deputy mufti of the Saratov region, a native of Palestine named Nidal al-Hikh, who in 2019 received a written warning from Russia’s Federal Security Service about the “inadmissibility of treason against the state”

The information was later amplified by Dmitry Steshin, a “war correspondent” and staffer at the pro-Kremlin Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, and by Ruslan Ostashko, host of the television program “Vremya Pokazhet” on Channel One. Ostashko claimed that the detained representatives of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims “turned out to be connected to the organization “Muslim Brotherhood” and foreign structures.” That claim has not been confirmed.

The propaganda television network Tsargrad reported that its sources confirmed detentions in Mordovia and North Ossetia — no other outlet reported anything about North Ossetia. Religious scholar Roman Silantyev told the network that the security services were working with associates of the head of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims, Ravil Gainutdin. The Telegram channel Rybar, which is close to Russia’s Defense Ministry, also reported that those detained were connected to Gainutdin’s circle.

The following day, May 20, some of the detentions were confirmed. The Tagansky District Court of Moscow reported that it had placed Wisam Ali Bardwil under administrative arrest for 15 days for disobeying police. According to the Interior Ministry, on the evening of May 14 at Sheremetyevo Airport, Bardwil refused to show his passport to police officers and attempted to flee, and when placed in a police vehicle, “actively resisted.”

The deputy mufti of Mordovia, Rashit Abdrashitov, confirmed that Mufti Rail Asainov had been detained in connection with a bribery case. Investigators believe Asainov offered a bribe to the head of the master’s program “Islamic Economics and Finance” at Mordovia State University “so that students in the program could pass their exams.” A representative of the muftiate said that “some kind of misunderstanding occurred” and denied any bribes were involved.

Update: The Mufti of Mordovia, Rail Asainov, has been released, his lawyer told the independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo on the evening of May 21. He declined to comment further, at his client’s request.

Law enforcement agencies had previously taken notice of representatives of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims. In August 2025, the Moscow City Court added to the list of extremist materials the encyclopedic dictionary “Islam in the North Caucasus,” published by the Medina publishing house under the editorship of the deputy chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims, Damir Mukhetdinov. The administration said at the time that the articles “Wahhabis of the North Caucasus” and “History of Islam in Chechnya” mentioned individuals involved in terrorist activity.

In 2024, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia drew criticism after it adopted a fatwa permitting religious polygamy. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office warned the organization that the decision was unlawful, after which the Spiritual Administration of Muslims withdrew the fatwa.