Russia turns to Muslim scholars to combat ‘radicalism’ in the Caucasus:

President Dmitry Medvedev has urged Russia’s top Muslim clerics to join forces to stop radical Islamist groups wooing young people in the turbulent North Caucasus.

The integration of Muslim ulama into Russian state to combat resistance and violence to its control over its Muslim-populated areas is not new. Catherine II did something similar:

[Robert] Crews [author of "For Prophet and Tasr"] argues that Catherine was heavily influenced by 18th-century French thinkers who thought religion provided “an alternative means of social discipline.”

“The regime sought religious support for its policies,” Crews says. “In other words, it tried to co-opt local Muslim authorities who might be in a position to confer some kind of religious legitimacy upon state policies in order to reduce the chance of resistance.”

Having studied the Ottoman Empire, Catherine and her advisers wanted to create a hierarchical Muslim structure that would work in tandem with the Russian state.