The chief Mufti of Moscow, Albir Krganov, expressed concern that there are not enough mosques in Russia, Interfax news agency reported on Monday.

"We are worried about the fact that we lack places where we can pray. If the state accepts so many migrants, then it should solve this problem," Krganov said during a press conference.

"We should decide where these migrants can pray. If they do not have a mosque to pray in, they will do religious acts somewhere else. We must know who they are preached by and what they talk about," the Mufti said.

According to the latest poll by the Levada polling center, the largest religion in Russia is Orthodoxy with 79% of respondents considering themselves to be followers. The next largest faith at 6% are Muslim. The remaining religious faiths (Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, and others) are represented by no more than 1% of respondents each, the survey showed.

There are now four large mosques in Moscow. In September 2012 Moscow authorities announced plans to build a fifth large mosque and a Muslim culture center in the city's North-Western district of Mitino.

On September 20, some 1,500 Mitino residents took to the streets and held a rally under the slogan "Say 'no' to a mosque in Mitino." They said they were protesting because of fears that the newly built mosque would gather thousands of Muslims to the district during holidays and that it would complicate the transport situation in the district.

As a result, the city's town-planning commission declined the plan to build a mosque in Mitino, and Moscow's mayor Sergey Sobyanin declared that " Moscow will probably not need any more mosques."