Source: Arutz Sheva

http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=73067

On December 5, 2004 Arutz Sheva reported, "Work on the construction of a mosque in the center of Kostroma continues despite protests reportedly organized by the local diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, according to Andrey Osherov, a participating monitor in a European Commission sponsored project to monitor xenophobia in Russia. (UCSJ, the Moscow Helsinki Group and the Moscow Bureau on Human Rights are the main grantees of the project.) According to Osherov, about 20,000 Muslims live in Kostroma, a mix of recent migrants and descendants of Tatars who settled in the city centuries ago. There is only one mosque, in poor condition, located in the former clubhouse of a factory, with a leaky roof and other problems."