Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 106

Military Strategy of the United States of 2011 have a
decidedly Pacific-rim focus and rest on the presumption of continued U.S. hegemony in the area.18

Russia and the Muslim World
The other key impact of the decline in the population of ethnic Russians is a shift in the traditional
cultural orientation and character of the Russian state
itself. While the Slavic majority declines in numbers,
the Central Asian Muslim minorities continue to grow
rapidly.
Russia’s indigenous Muslim population has grown
by 40 percent since 1989.19 The native Muslim population also has been bolstered by an influx of three
to four million Muslim migrants from former Soviet
republics such as Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, who
have entered the country in search of employment.20
Currently, roughly 80 percent of Russia’s Muslims reside in the North Caucasus and Middle Volga regions.
However, Russia’s capital city itself—Moscow—also
hosts an estimated 2.5 million Muslims, which is more
than any other European city except Istanbul, Turkey.21
Additionally, in 2010, the Russian Federal Security
Service’s Border Service reported a sharp increase in illegal immigration from the Middle East and Southeast
Asia.22 Many of these new immigrants are Muslims
from the former Soviet republics of Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Illegal immigration into
Russia has sparked a backlash. Xenophobic gangs of
armed ethnic-Slav vigilantes now routinely assault
immigrants. Reportedly, the police often ignore these
attacks. In the summer of 2008, the ultranationalist
Movement Against Illegal Immigration staged 6WfW&