Putin factors this into his Middle East shenaningans.
That’s not good for the Ruskies....
Don’t believe it. I remember 30 years ago, the Muslims were claiming there were 10 million Muslim Americans, on the logic that every person from any nation that had ever been Muslim was Muslim.
The highest good estimate is that there are about 11 million culturally OR religiously Muslim people in Russia. Of these, only about 3 million identify as belonging to any given sect of Islam. 0 percent of ethnic Russians report being Muslim; Muslims are predominantly Tatars, Avars, Bashkirs and Kazakhs, with only the Avars predominantly identifying with any given sect of Islam (Sunni).
According to Ipsos global trends in 2016, only 1% of internet-connected young adults identified as Muslim.
The International Social Survey Program in 2015 found that 6.2% of Russian citizens identified as Muslim, compared to 79% who identified as Christian.
The Russian Public Opinion Foundation found 6% of Russian citizens