By Damir Ahmed, IOL Russia correspondent

MOSCOW, January 21 (IslamOnline) – A Russian official attributed the decline in the number of  Russian pilgrims this year, put at only seven thousand, to the expensive costs of performing the Hajj.

Saudi Arabia is allocating 11,000 visas to Russian Muslims who are estimated at 15 million.

In exclusive statements to IslamOnline on Tuesday, January 21, Osman Aliev, deputy secretary of the religious administration in Provoljie area in the Penza province, said the sky-high costs of Hajj prompted several Russian Muslims to refrain from traveling to Saudi Arabia.

He said Saudi Arabia did not offer real support for Russian Muslims to facilitate the Hajj trip for them.

Aliev called on Saudi authorities to facilitate the travel of the Russian Muslims to the kingdom by expediting visa procedures and lowering ticket prices.

A Hajj trip would cost a Russian pilgrim about 1750 U.S. dollars including plane tickets, residence in Makka Al-Mukarama and Al-Madina Al-Monawara as well as transportations inside the kingdom, while a similar trip by bus would only cost 1000 U.S. dollars.

In an interview with the Russian newsru.com website on Sunday, January 19, Russian General Consul in Jeddah, Anwarbek Fadhly, said only two thousand Russian pilgrims would fly to the kingdom while the other five thousands would travel by land.

Dagestan Muslims top the list of Russian pilgrims with their number this year put at 1400.

Coming second to them are Muslims from Ingushia, 800, followed by Chechen Muslims, 500.

The first batch of pilgrims left the Dagestan city of Mahajkal late on Monday, January 20, aboard nine buses.

Other land trips are due to leave Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Dagestan capital Kazan and other provinces between January 23-25.

Hajj flights will leave Kazan, Moscow, Nijniy, Novgorod, St. Petersburg and Samara on February 5-6.