According to the Russian president, the “US ruling elites” and their “satellites” position themselves Vladimir Putin behind the murder of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and events in Ukraine, Iraq and Syria. Western intelligence and the Kiev government are also partly responsible for the storming of the airport in the Russian Caucasus republic of Dagestan by an anti-Israel mob, Putin said on Monday night.
The president spoke with members of his Security Council, the government and the heads of security agencies. Previously, there were unprecedented levels of anti-Jewish violence in the context of… Gaza conflictAround 20 people were injured in Russia’s Muslim-dominated North Caucasus. Angry people stormed the airport in the capital Makhachkala in the republic of Dagestan when an Israeli plane arrived there on Sunday. On Monday, the Kremlin accused the West of destabilization attempts and provocations.
Read more: Growing anger over the war in Gaza
Against the backdrop of television images of the “horror” in the Gaza Strip, it was “very easy to abuse the situation, provoke it, upset people,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously commented. Peskov said it was obvious that the riots were caused by foreign interference. It’s about “the West’s attempts to use the situation in the Middle East to cause a split in Russian society.” Peskov recalled that last week the president brought together Russia’s religious leaders amid possible tensions between people of different religions. Regarding the situation in the Middle East, Putin called for peaceful coexistence.
Comparison of pogroms
Following the anti-Israel riots in Dagestan, the President of Israel Isaac Duque compared the incidents to a “pogrom”. “It was like a pogrom”, said the head of state on Monday in an interview with “Bild”, Welt-TV and “Politico”. The riots at the airport in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala, were “shocking” and “extremely disturbing”. “Thank God, in the end it was stopped by the authorities, but it looked like a pogrom,” said Herzog. “I am glad that the Russian authorities intervened and took control and dispersed the crowd that was threatening the innocent civilians on the plane.”
Ukraine has rejected Russian accusations of inciting anti-Semitic excesses in Dagestan. “The events in Makhachkala reflect the deep-rooted anti-Semitism of Russian elites and society,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko wrote on Facebook on Monday. With its accusations against Kiev, Moscow is just trying to shift responsibility. Instead, the uprising was the result of “Russian state propaganda, which for decades cultivated a feeling of hatred toward other peoples among Russians.”
Read more: Anti-Semitic mob attacks airport
The head of the Republic of Dagestan Sergei Melikov condemned the violence against defenseless Tel Aviv commuters, who had done nothing wrong. There are said to be 45 passengers on board the plane, including 15 Israelis. Women with children who were in Israel for medical treatment were insulted and attacked for no reason, said Melikov, who headed to the airport.
There is no justification for violence, even if the suffering of victims caused by violence in the Palestinian territories disturbs people. “All Dagestanis pray for peace in Palestine,” Melikov said. At the same time, the region’s Islamic clergy also took a stand against violence: “Anti-Semitism has no place in the multi-ethnic North Caucasus.”
Melikov accused Russia’s “enemies” of calling for protests in Dagestan and inciting people to violence. He spoke about these calls on pro-Ukrainian Telegram channels. Russia, which has been waging a destructive war of aggression against Ukraine for more than 20 months, has repeatedly accused Kiev of trying to destabilize the situation in the country. According to the Russian power apparatus, Ukraine wants to force Moscow to redirect its resources used for the invasion of the neighboring country.
The attacks caused international consternation. According to authorities, there were around 60 arrests. Police officers are also among the injured. Israel and the US condemned the riots. The German government in Berlin demanded that Russia guarantee the safety of Jewish citizens. Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) spoke on Twitter (X) on Sunday evening. In English, he said: “The images from #Makhachkala airport in #Dagestan are deeply frightening. They remind us of the darkest times.” According to authorities, actions against Jews also took place in other predominantly Muslim regions in the North Caucasus. Flights from Tel Aviv have now been redirected to other Russian airports in safe regions.
Political scientist Gerhard Mangott said on Monday evening on ORF’s ZiB2 about the anti-Jewish crowd at Makhachkala airport that Dagestan is one of the economically weakest regions of Russia, which is at the same time growing rapidly demographically and producing young people without prospects who are receptive to Salafist currents. He saw no interference from the West; instead, he blamed Moscow for the poor security situation of the approximately 1,500 Jews in Dagestan. When it comes to the conflict in the Middle East, the Kremlin walks a tightrope because, on the one hand, it does not want to harm relations with Israel, which did not participate in Western sanctions, but, on the other hand, Putin wants to be the “leader of the south global” and arouse anti-Western resentment.
According to Mangott, Putin is certainly interested in expanding the fighting in the Middle East, since the longer the war lasts, the more Israel will compete with Ukraine for Western support. Additionally, the US could focus more on Israel, Mangott emphasized. Russia is not capable of a major offensive in Ukraine; instead, it is only sufficient for minor advances in the east, which are repeatedly repelled. Kiev’s summer offensive was also only “conditionally successful”, said Mangott, and bad weather was now making the situation even more difficult for the Ukrainian defenders. Regarding the interruption of Russian gas deliveries through Ukraine from 2025, the political scientist said that Kiev cannot afford to cut off energy supplies to European countries, especially in view of possible accession to the EU. In this regard, Mangott called for an agreement similar to the cereal agreement. Otherwise, there is a risk of a serious crisis in this country.