"Джихад за рознарядкою": інструменталізація ісламу в російській державній політиці під час війни проти України

The article examines the mechanisms of involvement of the Muslim community of the Russian Federation in supporting the so-called “special military operation” (SMO) against Ukraine. Particular attention is paid to the instrumentalization of Islam as an ideological resource used by the Kremlin to legitimize aggression. The transformation of the state's relations with Muslim regions, in particular with Chechnya, Tatarstan, Dagestan and others, since the 2010s, when Islam began to play a role in the construction of so-called “traditional values”, is studied. The author analyzes the activities of the main spiritual administrations (muftis), which, despite internal competition, demonstrate a high level of loyalty to state policy. Particular attention is paid to the practices of pressure on Islamic clergy, as well as the contradiction between the declarative “respect” for Islam and the actual oppression of Muslims, in particular through politically motivated bans on religious literature. The article shows that the rhetoric of jihad (holy war) is used only fragmentarily and mostly locally, while most muftis confine themselves to more formal loyalist statements. It is concluded that the attempt to give the war a “sacred character” in the Islamic context is exclusively instrumental and does not find a real response in the wider Muslim community of the Russian Federation.