VZCZCXRO7573
RR RUEHDBU RUEHLN RUEHPOD RUEHVK
DE RUEHYG #0082/01 3501057
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 161057Z DEC 09
FM AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1396
INFO RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 1040
RUEHLN/AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG 0619
RUEHVK/AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 0629
RUEHYG/AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG 1434

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEKATERINBURG 000082 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR S/P - GREG BEHRMAN, R - SEHREEN NOOR-ALI 
FOR EUR/RUS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: RS EAID ECON SOCI XF XI ZR ZP
SUBJECT: MUSLIM ENTRPRENEURS WELL INTEGRATED INTO REGIONAL ECONOMOY 
 
REF: STATE 112468 
 
YEKATERINB 00000082  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Sensitive but Unclassified.  Not for internet distribution. 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary:  On December 7, Consul General hosted a 
lunch for Muslim entrepreneurs and an NGO rep. Invitees 
discussed problems and trends within the local Muslim community 
and shared their thoughts on the up-coming Presidential Summit 
on Muslim Entrepreneurship in Washington (Reftel).  In general, 
our interlocutors felt well integrated into the Russian economy 
and did not suffer from discrimination in business.  Ethnic 
identity (for example, Bashkir or Tatar) was more important than 
religious identity.  Preservation of cultural and linguistic 
heritage was more problematic than promotion of business 
opportunities within the Muslim community.  End Summary. 
 
Muslim interlocutors exchange views 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Our group of six, which included Post's four nominees 
to the summit, represented a broad spectrum of entrepreneurial 
activity.  Nominee Ildar Gubayev is a large-scale entrepreneur. 
Founder of the regional financial institution UralFinPromBank, 
Gubayev is a property developer and has opened a chain of 
entertainment centers and fitness clubs based on American 
models.  A self-described "Russified Muslim," Gubayev did not 
associate his business success to his ethnicity or faith. In his 
view, the relatively tolerant atmosphere in the Urals region 
offers the same business opportunities to anyone smart enough 
and willing to be successful. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Nominees Radik Musin and Rafael Shikhov represent 
medium-sized business. The former chairs the Board of Directors 
of a regional bank, while the latter, a city council deputy, 
owns chain of domestic appliances stores in the region.  As 
successful entrepreneurs, they said that their business success 
was unrelated to ethnic or religious origin. Though active in 
the local Muslim community, they had no faith-based business 
ties and did not specifically market or promote their businesses 
within the Muslim community. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) In contrast, our start-up entrepreneur, Rozalia 
Akhmatova, began her business by designing and sewing 
contemporary Muslim women's clothes.  Ms. Akhmatova's business 
is the first business in Sverdlovsk oblast serving a specific 
market within the Muslim community.  She has applied for a 
federal grant for small entrepreneurs and hopes to receive up to 
RR 300,000 ($10,000) to rent premises, buy sewing machines, and 
advertise her products.  In the meantime she and her future 
employees work in their homes, filling individual orders for 
modern Muslim apparel. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Nominee Valeriya Tyumentseva, business consultant and 
law professor from Bashkortostan, brought a slightly different 
perspective to the group.  She saw a greater connection between 
religious values, social norms and business practices in her 
region, where Muslims form a majority of the population.  She 
felt that Muslim entrepreneurs were more successful working 
within their own communities and that business clans were 
respected and granted informal privileges in Bashkortostan. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Nurzida Benzgier, who heads an NGO that supports 
ethnic and religious minorities in Sverdlovsk oblast, is very 
connected to the labor migrant community, mostly Central Asians 
working in the construction industry.  She said she saw very 
little specific attention paid to these groups by Muslim 
businesses.  These communities, which are by nature transient, 
do not generate much entrepreneurial activity. 
 
Muslim entrepreneurs well-integrated into the regional economy 
 
¶7.  (SBU) In general, our guests felt they were well-integrated 
into the region's economic life and did not suffer from 
discrimination in their business dealings.  After decades of 
assimilation during the Soviet period, there is little deviation 
from basic business and market principals, and with the 
exception of our start-up entrepreneur, no differentiation in 
marketing practices to Muslim and non-Muslim consumers.  Even in 
the labor market, economic principals drive preferences: 
Migrant laborers from Central Asia are preferred in the 
construction market in part because of their cultural tendency 
to abstain from alcohol. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) The exception to this consensus was expressed by Ms. 
Akhmatova, who complained that she had been unsuccessful in 
registering a Muslim kindergarten, which she attributed as much 
to the restrictive Russian bureaucracy, rather than overt 
discrimination.  She did, however, note that some women in her 
 
YEKATERINB 00000082  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
community have suffered from discrimination in the workplace for 
wearing the hijab. 
 
Support for cultural traditions a part of corporate 
responsibility 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Though our businessmen did not consider corporate 
social responsibility an integral part of their business plans, 
all were involved in social/civic activity.  All of our guests 
expressed the need to support institutions that preserve ethnic 
linguistic and cultural traditions, especially in the absence of 
support from local governments in non-Muslim majority regions 
such as Sverdlovsk oblast.  Gulbayev, for example, said that he 
didn't feel he was a "real Muslim" anymore. Even though his life 
and his business made him a secular citizen, he still had 
respect for Muslim culture and values.  For this reason, he has 
contributed significant sums to mosque construction projects 
which he hopes will support efforts to preserve religious 
ceremonies and cultural values.  More broadly, however, our 
guests agreed that they shared responsibility to support civic 
projects without regard to any religious or cultural component. 
 
Aspirations for the summit 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Our guests expressed the hope that the summit would 
provide the opportunity to: 
 
*       Interact with lenders from Islamic countries who could 
offer cheaper loans to Urals businessmen suffering under the 
current Russian credit crunch 
 
*       Discuss whether Islamic banking practices (such as 
offering interest-free credits) could be adapted to Russia 
 
*       Examine social/civic practices of Muslim businessmen in 
Islamic states in order to strengthen the core of Muslim society 
in Russia 
 
*       Establish links between business representatives from 
other non-Muslim majority countries 
 
*       Discuss strategies for empowering Muslim youth to 
undertake entrepreneurial activity 
SANDUSKY