Blog post of U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul:

Today I had the honor to meet with the Chairman of the Presidium of the Religious Board of Muslims of European part of Russia, Chairman of the Russian Muftis Council Mufti Ravil Gaynutdin, head of the department of science and public relations services of the Russian Federation of Moscow Muftiyat Farid Asadullin and other leaders of the Muslim community. We met in the office of Mufti Gaynutdin, and we were treated to a tasty tea and terrific Tatar specialties. The conversation was pleasant and informative.

Mufti Gaynutdin spoke about some of its longstanding ties with the United States, not only about his meetings with secretaries of state, previous ambassadors and vice-president, but also good friends in the American Tatar community in Queens and California ...

He expressed appreciation for the constant visits of American Muslims in Russia to participate in the annual competition of recitation of the Quran.

We talked about the current state of affairs in a prosperous and growing Muslim community in Russia, noting the importance of the revival of religious life, which occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the destruction from which the religious community suffered after the Bolshevik revolution. We also discussed some of the problems faced by Muslims, many of which are similar to the problems of Muslims in America.

We agreed that the interaction of people of our countries is very useful, as well as exchange of experiences and discussion of common problems, and this, among other things, is the basis for the continuation of the "reset" in US-Russian relations.

Resource: http://www.tatar-gazeta.ru/