RUSSIA: Despite failing to fulfil an election promise to end the war in Chechnya, President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to face much opposition from Russia's 20 million Muslims in Sunday's presidential poll, writes Daniel McLaughlin in Moscow.
Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have died since Russian troops moved into the mainly Muslim Chechnya in 1994 to put down a separatist movement. They returned in 1999, after a two-year absence, just before Mr Putin entered the Kremlin.
International rights groups have deplored persistent kidnap, torture and murder by soldiers and rebels and Western governments have urged Mr Putin to seek a settlement with the separatists.
But despite having potentially huge lobbying power in a country where one in seven people is Muslim, Russian Islamic groups and religious leaders exert little pressure on the Kremlin.
Mr Alexei Malashenko, a specialist in Islamic affairs at Moscow's Carnegie Centre, said there was little political unity between Russia's two main Muslim communities, one in the central regions of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan and the other in the Caucasus mountains close to Chechnya.
"The Tatars and Bashkorts don't really think much about Chechnya. They worry more about their own social problems," he said.
"In [the Caucasus region of\] Dagestan, say, you will hear more about solidarity with Chechnya, but in many places they blame the Chechens for provoking war. They are tired of it and blame both Moscow and Chechnya."
Mr Damir Gizatullin, deputy mufti at Moscow's main mosque, said most Russian Muslims supported Mr Putin.
"We see a political battle in Chechnya, not a religious one," he said. "The president doesn't try to split society - he applies the same laws to everyone and gives federal help to everyone, treating all communities equally."