183183Conclusion: Russian Hajj in
the Twenty-First Century
In the twenty-first century, the hajj has once again become a European and a
Russian phenomenon, as a result of global events and processes. Since the
1980s, large-scale Muslim immigration to western Europe and the collapse of
communism in eastern Europe have made Islam the fastest-growing religion
on the Continent, and brought a revival of the old colonial powers’ involvement
in the Muslim pilgrimage. Nearly 100,000 European and Russian citizens make
the pilgrimage to Mecca annually, and their numbers rise every year, apace
with the steady growth of Muslim communities in Europe, most recently fueled
by refugees fleeing war in Syria. To support their citizens making the hajj,
European governments have created new institutions and services, including
medical stations in and around Mecca, and discount rates for pilgrims on
national airlines during hajj season. Major European airports are now hubs in
global hajj networks: in the days leading up to the scheduled hajj rituals in Ara-
bia, at airports in London and Berlin, Paris and Moscow, crowds of robed and
veiled Muslim pilgrims pray at the gates before boarding flights to Jeddah.
In 2007, citing Soviet-era prohibitions on the hajj and high demand, Russian
president Vladimir Putin persuaded the Saudi government to increase Russia’s
annual hajj quota, from 20,000 to 26,000.^1 This was a major diplomatic achieve-
ment. The hajj today involves as many as three million Muslims a year, a num-
ber kept artificially low by the quota system the Saudis introduced in the 1980s
to control the crushing crowds. Demand today far exceeds the number of spots
allowed, and the hajj is a major issue in Saudi diplomatic relations: the Saudis
regularly receive requests from Muslim-majority countries to increase their