After more than 7 months, the faltering Russian war in Ukraine caused major problems for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who tried to compensate for them with a series of political decisions, including the "partial mobilization" of the Russian people, interim referendums in 4 Ukrainian regions, and a nuclear threat directed to the West, its goal From all this is the support of his eroded position.
But the details of Putin's plan risk creating major domestic problems.
In this context, Ilan Berman, the first vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, described Putin's mobilization campaign as an extremely unpopular endeavor that has led to the real exodus of about 3-quarters of a million Russians since it was announced in late September last September.
Berman added, in his article in the American magazine "Newsweek", that this mobilization also exacerbates sectarian divisions within Russia itself, that is, between "the country's Slavic majority and the growing Muslim underclass."
To understand the reason for this, the writer believes that it is necessary first to understand the demographics of Russia, which is characterized by extreme turmoil, the country has been on a path of continuous population decline for decades, and the Kremlin's various initiatives to increase the birth rate at the national level have not succeeded in achieving the desired success.
Russian Muslims
However - the writer says - this decline is not uniform, as the performance of parts of the country's population - mostly Russian Muslims - is doing relatively well, and they are classified as the fastest growing minority in Russia, with their birth rates rising dramatically at the national level, and by In 2034, Muslims are expected to make up 30% of Russia's population.
Religious scholars in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan prevented Muslims from participating in the Russian conflict.
There are indications that discontent with Ukraine's war may fuel long-established separatist tendencies in the Muslim-majority North Caucasus republics.
And Berman pointed out that Muslims are not getting the status they crave. Russia has walked over the past decade in an increasingly authoritarian and ultra-nationalist direction, with little tolerance for citizens of different races or religions.
As a result, xenophobia has escalated locally, leading to a feeling of alienation among Muslim communities in Russia.
Moscow's policies in the Middle East, particularly its military intervention in support of the Syrian regime, have also helped radicalize a large part of this population, according to the author.
And now Putin's war on Ukraine exacerbates matters, as the Kremlin's partial mobilization aims, in theory, for a limited call-up of reservists, regardless of race.
However, in practice, the country's minorities, especially Muslims, bear the brunt of the Russian war effort, and suffer disproportionate losses as a result.
Deepening the internal division
This was noted by the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov: "The majority of those gathered there are representatives of the Muslim world. Their fault is that they were born on the territory of the Russian Federation, especially in Tatarstan, Dagestan and other Muslim communities."
The writer added that all this began to generate violent responses, whether from the Muslim minority in Russia itself or from followers of other religions in the region.
For example, the Muslim-majority republic of Dagestan in the North Caucasus has been the scene of some of the largest protests to date against Putin's mobilization order.
Religious scholars in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan prevented Muslims from participating in the Russian conflict.
There are even signs that discontent with the Ukraine war may be fueling long-running separatist tendencies in the Muslim-majority republics of the North Caucasus.
In other words, in his efforts to solve one problem, which is to raise the morale and manpower of his campaign in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin managed to create another, and his policies contributed to the deepening of the internal division between the Russian government and the country's fastest-growing minority, according to the writer.