Analysis of Russia’s Status as an Observer in the Organisation of

Islamic Cooperation

Auzan Shadiq

Department of European Studies University of Indonesia

Keywords: Russia, Muslim, OIC, Europe, Identities, and Interest

Abstract: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the second largest intergovernmental organization in the

world after the United Nations (UN) which claim themself as the collective voice of the Muslim world.

Having 57 member states, the OIC members are spread over in four different continents. The Republic of

Albania is the only European state in the OIC membership, whereas the largest Muslim population in

Europe is located in Russia. Since 2005 Russia has obtained an observer status in the OIC, along with other

states and international organizations. It is important to known that not all of the OIC member states should

have large Muslim population or become as a Muslim majority country, some of the member states from

Africa and South America has much less Muslim population than Russia. This paper is trying to find out

why up until now Russia only hold a status as an observer in the OIC membership. This research use a

qualitative method, framed by the Theory of Identity and National Interest from Alexander Wendt in the

Constructivist Paradigm. This research finds that there are two factors regarding to Russia's stance. The first

one is Russia’s double-identities and the second one is Russia's geopolitical interest.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is

the second largest intergovernmental organization in

the world after the United Nations (UN). The OIC

has 57 member states and claims themself as the

collective voice of the Muslim world, which has an

objective to safeguard and protect all of the Islamic

world interest in the spirit of the world peace

(Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, 2018).

The OIC establishment history was started from

the criminal activities of the Al-Aqsa Mosque arson

in Jerusalem, which triggered some of the Muslim

states to gather in Rabat, Marocco on September

25th, 1969 to solve the problem. A year after, the

Foreign Ministrial level meeting was held for the

first time in Jeddah, which resulting a decission to

erect the organization secretariat at the same city

which headed by a Secretary General (Organisation

of Islamic Cooperation, 2018).

The OIC member states are mostly comes from

Asia and Africa, but some of them are also comes

from Europe and even South America. For the

European continent itself, there is only Republic of

Albania which became the OIC member state since

1992 (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, 2018). It

should be noted that the largest Muslim population

in Europe is not coming from Albania, but from the

Russian Federation (Pew Research Center, 2011).

Based on the data in 2010, from 142.9 million

people of Russia, as many as 14.29 million people

(10%) are Muslim adherents, at the same time 104.7

million people (73.3%) of Russian citizens are

mostly Christian (Pew Research Center, 2010). As

the largest Muslim population country in Europe, by

2030 Russia is estimated will have 18.6 million

Muslim or growth around 0.6% each year (Pew

Research Center, 2011).

Despite their title as Europe’s largest Muslim

population country, up until now, Russia is just

holding an observer status in the OIC since 2005.

There are also some other states and international

organizations which gained status as an observer in

the OIC membership (Organisation of Islamic

Cooperation, 2018).

This paper found an interesting fact that not all

of the OIC member states should have a large

Muslim population or become a Muslim majority

country, here are the list of them:

340

Shadiq, A.

Analysis of Russia’s Status as an Observer in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

DOI: 10.5220/0009930203400347

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Recent Innovations (ICRI 2018), pages 340-347

ISBN: 978-989-758-458-9

Table 1: Comparison of the muslim population from some

of the oic member states with russia

States

(Region)

Population

Muslim %

(Population)

Status

Russia

(Europe)

142,900,000

10%

(14,290,000)

Observer

Ivory

Coast

(Africa)

19,706,666

37.5%

(7,390,000)

Member

Mozambique

(Africa)

23,333,333

18%

(4,200,000)

Member

Uganda

(Africa)

33,391,304

11.5%

(3,840,000)

Member

Cameroon

(Africa)

19,617,486

18.3%

(3,590,000)

Member

Benin

(Africa)

8,865,546

23.8%

(2,110,000)

Member

Togo

(Africa)

6,000,000

14%

(840,000)

Member

Gabon

(Africa)

1,545,454

11.2%

(170,000)

Member

Suriname

(Americas)

526,315

15.2%

(80,000)

Member

Guyana

(Americas)

781,250

6.4%

(50,000)

Member

(Pew Research Center, 2010)

Based on table I, this paper would like to show a

unique puzzle to discuss about how Russia which

the largest Muslim population country in Europe

only gained a status as an observer state in the OIC.

Whereas, there are also some other OIC member

states which in actual number has relatively less

Muslim population than Russia and even not a

Muslim majority country, just like Russia.

Based on such issue, this paper proposes a

research question as follows: Why up to now Russia

only hold the status as an observer state in the OIC

membership? This paper will use a qualitative

method as the main ‘engine’ and using theory to

reveal the Russian stance which only holds the status

as an observer state in the OIC membership.

This paper uses the Theory of Identity and

Theory of National Interest from Alexander Wendt

in the framework of the Constructivist Paradigm. It

is one of the perspectives in the International

Relations which does not believe on the objective of

truth and social reality. It is agreed that the

knowledge regarding the social world can never be

accumulated since the social world is socially

constructed by human and not given (comes from

out there). The social world is more like an

intersubjective area which created on the particular

time and place and meaningful for the whole society

within (Jackson & Sorensen, 1999).

The Constructivist Paradigm in the last couple of

decade has been considered as the best three

paradigms in the International Politics, along with

Realism and Liberalism. As the middle ground

theory, the Constructivist never give the privileges

to the certain agents, actors or unit analysis. They

could become a state or non-state actors such as

individual, corporation, social movement groups or

other international organizations (Viotti & Kauppi,

2012).

Sometime the Constructivist seems like a

double-edge knife. On the one side it often seems

very positivist, since put forward the material-based

images which frequently used by the Realism or

Liberalism Theory, which based on the natural

science characteristic. It also often use the Interest

Theory and Rational Choice to evaluate every

consequences happened as a form of objectivity. On

the other side almost all scholars agree that

Constructivist still believe on the normative and

ideational factors which considered more important

than material structure. Things such as hard power,

economic production, total of population and

geographical position are often considered not

important enough (Viotti & Kauppi, 2012).

The understanding of norms, rules, and identities

has been a key concept for Constructivist since it

considered has institutionalized and intersubjectively

shared the actors. Specifically the Constructivist see

that the identities are the understanding about the

role of self which gained by interaction with others.

The term of others, in this case, is a structure which

consists of a social relation series, shared meanings,

rules, norms, and practices (Viotti & Kauppi, 2012).

Identities could change as time goes by since it

surpasses the context. Hence none identities could

be immortal. Identities are something created and

not given. Even it sometimes considered more

important than just an interest of a state. Identities

could be influenced by endogenous sources (such as

cultural aspect, military doctrine, race, gender,

nationalism, religion or ideology from a community

group) and also the exogenous sources (the

international norms or multilateralism). Those

factors also contribute to affecting the identities and

role of the state toward other states (Viotti &

Kauppi, 2012).

According to Alexander Wendt (2003), the state

is an entity which could have several identities or

interest inside it. Identities in the philosophical

understanding are whatever makes a thing what it is.

It means that identities are located by personal or

unit level quality that rooted in the understanding of

self from an actor. Two types of idea could be

merged into one of those ideas are equally believed

or adhere by self and others (Wendt, 2003).

Wendt classified four types of identities namely:

Personal or Corporate, Type, Role and Collective

Identities. The first classification is the Personal or

Corporate Identities which based on the self-

organizing homeostatic structure which made the

international political actors become a distinct entity.

Analysis of Russia’s Status as an Observer in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

341

Each actors has only one specific identity which

constituted on the material-based. The characteristic

of Personal or Corporate Identities is the presence of

consciousness and memory of self as a separate

place from the thinking and activity. The state is a

group of self which capable or conscious toward its

own group-level. The perspective regarding to the

ideas of self conception, has an auto-genetic quality

inside it. It can be concluded that basically the

Personal or Corporate Identities is exogenous toward

others (Wendt, 2003).

The second classification is the Type Identities,

which refers to the social category or label which

given to the people that shares some of their

characteristic, starting from the appearance thing,

behavioral traits, attitude, skills (especially

language), knowledge, argument, experience,

historical similarity (place of birth), and so on. An

actor could has several Type Identities, on this case

not just a common characteristic but also has a

content or social meaning. The content is provided

by a membership rules which usually not or less

formal, then it is determine what considered as Type

Identities and tend to direct the behaviour of others

toward it. These rules sometime could be various

forms, depend on the historical and cultural contents

(Wendt, 2003).

Coming up next is the Role Identities which has

a tendency depend on the culture, so the others are

one step ahead. The characteristic of Role Identities

are not based on the intrinsic properties factor,

however more to the relation only with the others.

Someone could has this identity only with occupying

a position in the social structure and follows the

behavioral norms toward others which has a relevant

counter identities. Someone could not validate their

own Role Identities, since it depend on the existence

of sharing expectation. It is happen because of there

are several number of roles which institutionalized

in a social structure which more prioritized certain

interactions (Wendt, 2003).

The last Wendt classification for the type of

identities is the Collective Identities which see the

relation between self and others until at the logical

conclusion part, which is the identification. The

meaning of identification itself is the process that

make self-others conception become blurred and

even on certain limits could surpass it. For

Alexander Wendt the meaning of self on this case

could be categorized as others. The process of

identification usually always discuss about the

specific issue such as love and patriotism, even it

often surpassing the limits of self and others itself.

In short the Collective Identities is the combination

between Role Identities and Type Identities, which

able to has the causal power to encourage the actors

align the self and others into altruistic. The altruistic

actors are indeed still considered as rational,

however they more often set the basics of their

interest on certain group or team (Wendt, 2003).

All of those classifications of identities are

indeed implies, but cannot be reduced as an interest.

Identities refer more to what and who is the actor

(social condition or states of being), while interest

refers to what desired by the actor (a motivation

which explain behavior). Interest requires identities

because an actor is seen unable to know what they

want until they know who is their true identity

(Wendt, 2003).

The state is an actor whose behavior is motivated

by several kinds of interest which rooted in Personal

Identities, Type Identities, Role Identities, and

Collective Identities. According to Wendt, the state

has shared its virtues inside the Personal and

Corporate Identities, which in the end will create a

general national interest. Wendt sees that the state is

not Realist by nature, the national interest concept is

referred to as the condition of state-society

complexes reproduction which is the definition of

objective interest. Most of the International

Relations scholars are more concerned with the

personal interest which is the origin of the formation

of scientific state interest (Wendt, 2003).

Based on the above exposure, this paper

formulates diagram of the operationalization of

theories as follows:

Figure 1: Diagram of operationalization of theories

The Identities on this case is acts as a roots from

the actor’s national interest, and the national interest

that appears will become an actor’s main motivation

to act or behave in the international structure.

From the above operationalization of theories,

this research will use a model of analysis as follows:

Figure 2: Diagram of the model of analysis

Referring to the above diagram, at least two

important things will be discussed on this paper. The

first one is Russia'sdouble-identities, and the second

one is Russia’s geopolitical interest. Through both

sub-problems, it is expected that will rise a sharp

answer from this research.

Russia’s

Double-

Identities

Russia’s

Geopolitic

al Interest

Identities

National Interest

Actor’s

Behavior

Russia’s stance

that only gained

a status as an

observer state in

the OIC

ICRI 2018 - International Conference Recent Innovation

342

2 RUSSIA’S DOUBLE-

IDENTITIES

From the previous explanation it is already discussed

that identities has two main structures, namely

which comes from the endogenous sources and

exogenous sources. Several things that affect the

identities of an actor which comes from the

endogenous sources are namely the cultural aspect,

military doctrine, race, gender, nationalism, religion

or ideology from the group of society. Besides there

is also the influence from exogenous sources, which

is the international norms such as multilateralism

(Viotti & Kauppi, 2012). This paper is trying to

discuss both sources through Russia’s perspective as

one of the European countries.

One of the factors that affect Russia to

participate in the OIC membership is because of a

religious similarity background, which is Islam. This

religious identity has been the regulator for the

social, economic, cultural and moral issues for many

families in Central Asia (including in the region of

Turkmenistan, Volga, Ural, and the Caucasus) for

more than 1,400 years of Islamic history and before

the arrival of the Communist regime. Since the entry

of Soviet administration, the freedom of Muslim

rights was seized. The Soviet Union administration

was trying to ‘eradicate’ Islam and replace it with

Communist ideology. Islam and the Muslim

organization were forced to bear the burden of

persecution for 70 years (Kerimov, 1996).

During the 1917 - 1985 period was marked as the

era of struggle, oppression, and persecution on the

religion and religious organization. However, from

time to time many parties and states in the Soviet

were slowly started to soften themself toward the

religious oppression case and start to change the

tactics. It was mainly happened in the era of the

Great Patriotic War and after the death of Stalin

(Kerimov, 1996).

After the fall of the Soviet regime there were

some of the sovereign states that were born with a

traditionally Islamic background such as Azerbaijan,

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,

and also Uzbekistan. Those countries are indeed not

explicitly stated that Islam becomes their state

religion since there was a Secularism influence from

the Soviet era. Currently, all of those states have

already joined the OIC as a full member state

(Kerimov, 1996).

The fall of Soviet regime at least has separate

around 65 million Muslims in Central Asia with

Russia. However, it does not make Russia then

losing their Muslims citizen. Many Russian federal

subjects still become a Muslim majority area such as

Republic of Tatarstan, Republic of Bashkortostan,

Republic of Dagestan, Republic of Adygea, the

Chechen Republic, Republic of Ingushetia, Republic

of North Ossetia-Alania, the Kabardino-Balkar

Republic and the Karachay-Cherkessia Republic.

Those federal subjects are estimated has 20 million

Muslims (Kerimov, 1996).

The rapid growth of Muslim population in

Russia has become one of the important factors from

the evolution of political dynamics of the country

especially in the Northern Caucasus region, South

Russia region, the Ural mountains, Siberia and even

in the Moscow Metropolitan region. The most

populated Muslim area in Russia is the Volga region

(including Bashkortostan and Republic of Tatarstan)

that has become an ‘Islamic Island' in the middle of

vast ‘Orthodox Christianity Ocean'. The radical

Islamic movement is often rated as one of the main

issues for the domestic political movement in

Russia. Many Islamic radical groups are often create

some trouble in the Russia’s sovereign area,

especially in the Republic of Tatarstan. The rampant

of terrorism act in the City of Kazan (capital of the

Republic of Tatarstan) is the impact of rapid

magnitude of Muslim migration flows from outside

Russia especially in the Northern Caucasus region,

Azerbaijan and Central Asia (Malashenko, 2013).

The situation in the Volga region, Ural

mountains, and Western Siberia is getting change

after the increasing of magnitude from the Muslim

immigrant flows which comes from outside Russia.

The exact amount of those immigrants are still

unknown since most of them are entering through

the illegal channels. It estimated that there are some

700,000 until 1,200,000 of Uzbeks; 800,000 until

2,000,000 of Tajiks; 400,000 until 800,000 of

Kyrgyz; and 600,000 until 1,000,000 of Azerbaijani

which become an immigrants in Russia’s soil

(Malashenko, 2013).

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin has stated

that the Muslim population in Russia is already

reach 20 million people. The Kremlin (Russian

administration) seen the Russian Muslim community

as a single entity without separating them as a

foreign immigrant or a citizen of Russia. Those

views are justifying the existence of Muslim

identities in Russia as a cohesive thing and can not

be separated from the social, cultural and political

lives in Russia (Malashenko, 2013).

Analysis of Russia’s Status as an Observer in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

343

Figure 3: Deployment map of muslim majority area in

russia - (Laqueur, 2009).

It can not be denied that Russia indeed has an

internal political problem which way more important

with their own Muslim communities than its relation

with other Muslim states counter parts. The Russian

government stance toward its Muslim minorities are

filled with a number of contradiction which hard to

avoid. Moscow are insist to always keep its loyalty

to the Muslim minorities, however sometimes they

hard to or does not want to fulfill the requests and

demands from many Muslim elements. Meanwhile

there are two area in the Volga region (the Republic

of Tatarstan and Republic of Bashkortostan) which

are one of the most important petroleum producing

area in Russia. Both area has received a number of

special autonomy policy, even they sparked an idea

to require every Deputy of Russian Prime Minister

or Russian President must be a Muslim from Volga

region (Laqueur, 2009).

Islam as one of the most influencing spiritual

identities group in Russia, unfortunately not having

much attention from the majority group of Russian

Orthodox Church. Some of the Russian religious

philosophers and scholars in the 19th century such

as Chaadaev, Slavophiles Khomyakov and Soloviev

has ever mentioning a little bit about Islam on their

works. Many of those scripts are literally not quite

much understand about the subject and most of them

are form of the speculation (Laqueur, 2009).

The less understanding of Islam is indeed a

reasonable thing for Russia since the majority of

Russian citizens are the adherents of Orthodox

Christianity (71%). Russia is the largest Orthodox

Christianity states in the world with the total

adherents reach 101.45 million people. There are

many Russian citizens agree that their country has a

special duty to protect the whole of interest from the

Christian Orthodox adherents all around the world.

Moreover, currently Russia is the primary key player

in the field of cultural and geopolitical issues (Pew

Research Center, 2017).

If referring to the classification of identities from

Alexander Wendt, Russia on this case is seen to has

two different identities. The first one is Russia as the

largest Muslim population country in Europe and the

second one is Russia as the largest Orthodox

Christianity state in the world. Both religious

identities cannot be denied as an integral part of

Russia, either Muslim or Orthodox Christianity. This

paper found that both reasons has giving a big

impact to the Russian status in the OIC membership

as an observer state.

Figure 4: Deployment map of religious majorities in

central and eastern europe - (Pew Research Center, 2017).

3 RUSSIA’S GEOPOLITICAL

INTEREST

Currently, Russia is trying to leave the ‘old scar'

from the tragedy of the civil war in the Chechen

Republic and ensure there still some place left for

the Muslim citizens in the country. The amount of

Muslim community in Russia added with the pro-

Russian group in some post-Soviet Muslim states

has made a natural interest for Russia to joining the

OIC (Geopolitika, 2013).

The life of the Muslim community in the

Republic of Tatarstan is one of the good examples

for the Muslim world in seeing the Russian religious

tolerance toward Islam. President Mintimer

Shaimiev of Tatarstan along with the Deputy of

Foreign Affairs Department of the Russian Orthodox

Church, Vsevolod Chaplin was joined at the

Religious Conference in Jeddah in 2008. President

Shaimev delivered the opening remarks from the

Russian President at that time, Dmitry Medvedev

that Russia still sticks with its path to expand the

active interaction with the Islamic world. Chaplin

also added that Russia would never be separated

from the Islamic world, vice versa. There are many

adherents of the Orthodox Christianity who lives in

the Muslim majority states,

and also there are many

ICRI 2018 - International Conference Recent Innovation

344

Muslims who lives in the Orthodox Christianity

majority states, such as Russia (Geopolitika, 2013).

The approaching ways that taken by Russia and

the US toward the OIC was really different. On a

reception held in Washington DC, former US

Secretary of State Madam Condoleezza Rice was

introducing the first US special envoy to the OIC,

Sada Cumber in 2008. Madam Rice stated that the

idea regarding to the US which ‘in war’ against the

Islamic world was totally wrong, she was more

emphasizing that those ideas actually was spread by

the brutal extrimist group that want to divide the

Muslim community. Meanwhile Sada Cumber

admitted that he could not do so much to convince

the people at the OIC Conference regarding to the

truth of Madam Rice statement (Geopolitika, 2013).

The different approach precisely shown by

Russia regarding to its proximity with the Islamic

world. Russia wants to join the OIC, considering its

Muslim population which way bigger than some

other Muslim states in Asia and Africa. According to

the Russian Ambassador to the OIC, Veniamin

Popov that Russia’s interest to join the OIC

membership is to enhance the cooperation with the

Islamic world and continuing their work in the

framework of international agency and observe the

international law (Geopolitika, 2013)

According to the former OIC Secretary General

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu, stated that currently the

‘outside world’ is more giving much attention to the

‘Islamic world’ than 35 years ago. The cultural and

religious identities on Muslim minority communities

start getting more visible, even there more and more

that showing its interest to join the OIC as member

states or as an observer states. According to

Ihsanoğlu, the Russian Federation has succeeded in

showing their interest (Organisation of Islamic

Cooperation, 2004).

The Russian Federation was introduced as a non-

Muslim observer state of the OIC at the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in

2005. At that time the OIC Secretary General

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu stated that the OIC is the only

Islamic-based intergovernmental organization in the

world which has 57 member states which spread

over four different continents (Asia, Africa, Europe,

and South America). The Russian Federation was

mentioned as a non-Muslim observer state which

newly joined the organization on June 2005 in

Sana’a, Yemen. He also said it proudly that the OIC

is the second largest intergovernmental organization

in the world after the United Nations (UN), which

represent almost 1.3 billion Muslim around the

world or equal as 1/5 of the world population

(Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, 2005).

Based on the OIC Charter (Chapter II), that any

member state of the United Nations, having Muslim

majority and abiding by the Charter, which submits

an application for the membership may join the

Organisation if approved by consensus only by the

Council of Foreign Ministers on the basis of the

agreed criteria adopted by the Council of Foreign

Ministers. On the other hand decision on granting

Observer status to a member of the United Nations,

will be taken by the Council of Foreign Ministers by

consensus only and from the agreed criteria by the

Council of Foreign Ministers (Organisation of

Islamic Cooperation, 2008).

Russia is not the only parties which have an

interest in this case, the OIC also really need Russia

which has a permanent membership status at the UN

Security Council. The OIC needs to consult with

Russia to overcome many issues experienced by the

Muslim at the international stage. The OIC wants the

Muslim minorities in Russia could act as a bridge

between Russia and the OIC, even also expect

Russian observer status could create an intercultural

and inter-civilizational dialogue between the OIC

and the western world (Organisation of Islamic

Cooperation, 2007).

Besides through the central government, Russia

has often held a discussion forum regarding their

relationship with the Islamic world through the

Russia Muftis Council (RMC). Moscow is also ever

be a host city in a forum titled Russia and the

Islamic World: the Vectors of Modernization in the

CIS space, which gathered many Muslim figures

from the post-Soviet states in Eurasian Continent.

According to the head of the RMC, Ravil

Gainutdinov said that the idea of CIS Council of

Mufti's establishment would soon could be realized

considering the amount of Muslim population in the

Central Asia region, which has the same problem

with Russia. Gainutdinov hopes that there will be a

standardized rule about the erection of some new

mosques throughout Russia (Russia Mufties

Council, 2016).

The Russian President Vladimir Putin said on his

remarks at the inauguration of Moscow Cathedral

Mosque, that Islam in the Russian constitution is one

of the parts of traditional Russian belief with

millions of its adherents. According to President

Putin that the reconstruction of the largest Mosque

in Europe, has marked the Russian Federation as a

multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state (Russia

Mufties Council, 2015).

It could be concluded that Russia currently is

playing an outstanding game with other global

significant powers. Their interaction with the Islamic

world through the OIC is an exceptional way. They

could ‘win the heart' of 1.3 billion Muslim around

the world because joining the OIC. Although they

are not yet become a full member state of the OIC,

Analysis of Russia’s Status as an Observer in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

345

however, Russia’s geopolitical interest is already

fulfilled smoothly.

4 CONCLUSION

Prior approaching to the conclusion part, this paper

would like to rewind the research question proposed:

Why up until now Russia only hold the status as an

observer state in the OIC membership? Based on the

OIC Charter (Chapter II), Russia already ‘in half’

fulfill the criteria to upgrade their status as a member

state of the OIC. They are a member state of the UN

but not a Muslim majority country. However, it is

not a big deal. The fact found by this paper on the

introduction part, said that not all of the OIC

member states should have a large Muslim

population or become a Muslim majority country.

Some other OIC member states have less Muslim

population than Russia and not Muslim majority

countries. Moreover, they have the largest amount of

the Muslim population in Europe.

The only thing that has not done yet by Russia is

just submitting an application for its membership

status in the OIC. All of the requirements and data

that exist will not effect if there are no direct efforts

from the government to apply for registration. Even

a Muslim majority state will not automatically be

registered as a member state of the OIC if they do

not register themself. The next big question that

might be rise will be: Why they do that?

There is a ‘domestic clash’ between identities

and interest in Russia regarding their stance just to

become an observer state in the OIC membership.

The first one is the clash of identities. This paper

prefers to call it the double-identities factor. The role

of ‘self and others’ in this case is still strong. On one

side Russia is the largest Muslim population state in

Europe, however, on the other side, Russia is also

the largest Orthodox Christianity state in the world.

Although religion is one of the endogenous sources

of the Russian identities, the majority group will

always label themself as a ‘self’ while the minority

one will be the ‘others.' It is quite impossible for

Russia to join the Islamic-based intergovernmental

organization, while in fact, the majority religious

group in Russia is the Orthodox Christianity.

Alexander Wendt statement has been mentioned

earlier on this paper, that a state could have several

identities and interest. The state is not a realist by

nature because there is a personal interest and the

most important thing is that interest requires

identities. The second domestic clash owned by

Russia is also because of their interest. Even though

it is quite impossible to become as a member state,

however, Russia still needs to maintain a close

relationship with the Islamic world which

represented by the OIC as the collective voice of the

Muslim world. Russia’s geopolitical interest to

enhance its proximity and cooperation with the

Islamic world is also important. Moreover, it is a

mutual interest between Russia and the OIC. Russia

is already one step further to ‘win the heart’ of the

states from the Islamic world rather than US, NATO

or even the EU in the field of a global political stage.

The closing statement that could be taken from

this paper is that Russia is now ‘playing on two-legs’

in the global politics constellation. It is enough for

Russia to ‘just simply’ act as an observer state in the

OIC membership. On one side Russia could still

maintain the good relationship with the Islamic

world following their geopolitical interest, and on

the other side, they still have their own identity as

the largest Orthodox Christian country in the world.

REFERENCES

Geopolitika., 2013, November 2. Russia and the Muslim

World. Retrieved from

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