Amusing & interesting. I'd vote for desperation, myself, but Putin is one calculating bastid, so I'm sure there's a subtext to this.

I have a hard time believing that the flavour of Islamic practice is going to make anyone happier about the brutality and criminality of the Russian military presence.

The Wiki link on dhikr is queerly Perso-Urdu centric. Probably the core is written by a Indo-Pak fellow.

This caught me eye:
A group dhikr ceremony in Arabic countries is usually called the hadrah ("presence", referring not to God's presence but to that of the spirit of the Prophet Muhammad and to the awareness of each participant). The hadrah marks the climax of the Sufi's gathering regardless of any teaching or formal structure.

I guess in Machriq.

I wish Wiki authors were a little more aware of their limitations.

That Putin. It is beyound me why some Muslim governments would cozy up to him given how Russia has generally dealt with the Caucasian Muslims. Shameless. If Putin becomes Jewish than perhaps we can see some resistance. Yes, I am cynical.

Where are my Somali heads at?

Religious solidarity is a sham, and always has been.

Looks like he's taking a page from the Central Asian playbook. Note this article on Uzbekistan from 2000 :

http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/uzbekistan/hypermail/200009/0030.html

Tamerlane - thanks for the pointer. Have I ever mentioned that I want Paul Goble to bear my children?

I'm curious to see what kind of unintended consequences might pop up, both in Chechnya and in Central Asia. One of these days I'll get around to an update post on Andijan, for that matter.

I don't think it's a good move in the long run for the Sufi orders to visibly become part of the Kremlin's strategy.

There will be a backlash to that too, although of what strength I don't know. And while becoming embroiled in Chechen official politics undoubtedly has some perks (such as getting to perform zikr in a big mosque named after Ahmad Kadyrov), it also brings a lot of new dangers.

Strategies of co-opting traditional power centers (tribes, ethnic minorities, religious sects) will often lead to them entering in coalition with specific regional, political etc factions of the government. That then both contributes to fissures in the system, to the traditionals being exposed to inter-administration rivalries, and to the government as a whole becoming entangled in tribal or religious vendettas. (Darfur is a terrific example.)

And while I know little about the Chechen local gov, it seems precisely the kind of weak coalition that could produce purges and infighting if crisis should erupt. It is not based on common goals, but on Moscow pressure and mediation, and a temporary alignment of interests -- both of which are inherently unstable as a base for government.