State Duma deputy Matveev apologized to Muslims after criticizing Kadyrov

State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Mikhail Matveev apologized for his words that some migrants are “aggressively imposing their Sharia on the residents of Russia,” and the authorities in the country are “bending under the Islamic factor.” According to the deputy, he did not mean all Muslim migrants, but “terrorists, shaitans.” Today, Mr. Matveev’s statement was criticized by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.

January 3 at YouTube– the channel of blogger Pavel Ivanov published an interview in which Mikhail Matveev commented on reports about the possible cancellation of New Year trees in some Russian schools due to the position of parents of migrant children. He stated that some of the migrants coming to Russia are “wild savages” who “aggressively impose their Sharia on the residents of Russia,” and the Russian government “bends under the Islamic factor,” including building mosques. The deputy also expressed the opinion that after the end of hostilities in Ukraine, clashes between Orthodox Christians and Muslims on religious grounds will begin in Russia.

Today, January 23, Ramzan Kadyrov drew attention to the deputy’s statement. “Our soldiers serve on an equal basis with representatives of various faiths and nationalities in the Northern Military District zone. And in the rear, you see, Matveev is talking about how to divide them into non-Muslims and Muslims after the North Military District and get rid of the latter in order to avoid provocation. It’s better to kick out Matveev alone, and there will be much less provocations,” the head of Chechnya wrote in his Telegram channel.

“I want to tell you, Ramzan Akhmatovich, that I, of course, meant those terrorists, shaitans, as you call them, with whom you fought in your republic and in the North Caucasus, and who were defeated there. If one of my brothers, colleagues, Russian Muslims took this personally, I am not ashamed to apologize, because I mean those radicals,” Mikhail Matveev said in a video in his Telegram-channel.

Last year, State Duma deputies proposed many prohibitive measures against foreign migrants who had recently received Russian passports. Thus, in August, the party “A Just Russia – For Truth” proposed legislatively limiting the number of migrant children in schools. At the same time, Mikhail Matveev introduced a bill on depriving acquired Russian citizenship for evading military registration. The head of the Spiritual Assembly of Muslims of Russia, Albir Krganov, said that the Muslim community in Russia is concerned about the threat of migrant phobia.

Read more in the Kommersant article. “Interethnic relations seemed biased”.