Sorok Sorokov, a Russian Orthodox movement, has had an eight-hour meeting with Chechen Commander Apti Alaudinov regarding his disagreements with a priest from Sochi, after which they concluded that Alaudinov is a ‘friend’ of Russians and Orthodox Christians.
The movement met Alaudinov over critical statements he had made about Schema Igumen Gavriil, a priest based in Sochi, who during a sermon made Islamophobic remarks.
Alaudinov called the priest a ‘moron’ and a ‘representative of the army of the Antichrist’ after Gavriil referred to Muslims as an ‘army’ and expressed fears that a ‘mullah might give [them an] order to slaughter Muscovites’.
Following the incident, Sorok Sorokov submitted formal complaints to Russia’s Investigative Committee and Ministry of Defence, demanding that Alaudinov be held accountable for insulting a priest. However, those demands were withdrawn after the lengthy meeting with the Chechen commander.
According to the group’s leader, Andrey Kormukhin, they had initially intended to request a public apology, but after hearing Alaudinov’s explanation, they reconsidered. Kormukhin said Alaudinov admitted his mistake, explaining that he had spoken emotionally without knowing who Gavriil was, and expressed regret that the priest’s remarks had offended many Muslims in Russia.
Kormukhin stated that Alaudinov understood that Gavriil did not intend to insult all Muslims, but was referring specifically to the threat of radical political Islam. He also recalled how Alaudinov spoke of his deputy, known by the call sign ‘Archangel, an Orthodox Christian from Rostov-on-Don’.
‘The General and I talked a lot about the past, present and future, about the challenges facing Russia. We talked about demography, about Russophobia, about Chechenophobia. We talked about the danger of the rhetoric “Russia for Russians” if Russians are not Orthodox Christians and do not understand the significance of the state-forming role of the Russian people in a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state, in which the historical community and fate of 200 indigenous peoples of millennia-old Russia are woven together,’ wrote Kormukhin.
According to Kormukhin’s post, the meeting included discussions on interfaith cooperation during both wartime and peacetime. Alaudinov highlighted that Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Buddhists, and Jewish people all served in the Akhmat unit. ‘There are no atheists in war — when the shelling begins, everyone turns to God,’ he reportedly said.
The dialogue was described as ‘frank’ and ended with the affirmation that they all share ‘one God’, ‘one country’, and ‘one enemy’.
Kormukhin wrote on his Telegram channel that the meeting marked the beginning of an ‘ongoing cooperation, both military and spiritual’.
He added that participants of the meeting came to the conclusion that ‘Apti Alaudinov is not an enemy of Russians or Orthodox Christians, but a friend’. As a gesture of goodwill, they presented the general with banners bearing images of Christ the Saviour and the Virgin Mary.
Alaudinov reposted Kormukhin’s post, but did not comment separately on their meeting.
Elizaveta Chukharova
