Russian President Vladimir Putin was seen kissing the Holy Quran during his visit to a mosque in Chechnya this week in a video that has gone viral on social media.

According to the Daily Express, the gold-encrusted Holy Quran was a gift for the 71-year-old Russian president from the “Prophet Jesus” mosque in Grozny, Chechnya, as he visited the region for the first time in 13 years.

Putin also met with Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov, with whom he visited the newly constructed “Prophet Jesus” mosque in the capital, which aims to be a significant religious site for Muslims in the region.

In the video, Putin can be seen receiving the Holy Quran and kissing it as soon as he held it as an act to show respect for the Islamic faith.

The video also shows him posing for pictures with Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov, with whom he visited the mosque, while holding the Holy Quran.

However, this isn’t the first time Putin has received the Holy Quran as a gift.

Last year, during his visit to a historical mosque of Derbent in the Dagestan Autonomous Republic of the Russian Federation, the Russian leader met with Muslim representatives and received a copy of the Holy Quran as a gift in celebration of Eid ul Adha.

At the time, Putin said that while the desecration of the Holy Quran is not seen as a crime in some countries, it is penalised in Russia.

“In our country, this is a crime both according to the Constitution and the penal code,” he said. 

“The Quran is sacred for Muslims and should be sacred for others,” he said as he thanked the representatives for the gift. “We will always abide by these rules.”

His remarks came after Salwan Momika, an Iraqi refugee seeking to ban the Holy Quran in Sweden, desecrated the holy book of Muslims repeatedly outside the Stockholm Central Mosque, as Muslims in Stockolm celebrated Eid ul Adha.