MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Monday that the storming of an airport in the capital of the southern Russian region of Dagestan by an anti-Israeli mob on Sunday was the result of “outside influence.”
In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It is well known and obvious that yesterday’s events around Makhachkala airport are largely the result of outside interference, including information influence.”
Peskov said that “ill-wishers” had used widely seen images of suffering in Gaza to stir people up in the predominantly Muslim region in the north Caucasus. He did not specify who the Kremlin believed had engineered the violence, or why.
Russia’s interior ministry said on Monday that 60 people had been arrested after hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed the airport in Makhachkala on Sunday, shortly after a plane from Israel arrived.
Russian news reports said the crowd surrounded an airliner, which belonged to Russian carrier Red Wings. The website Flightradar indicated that a Red Wings flight out of Tel Aviv had landed at Makhachkala at 7:00 p.m. (1600 GMT).
The independent Russian media outlet Sota said it was a transiting flight that had been due to take off again for Moscow two hours later.
Authorities closed the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, and police converged on the facility. It was reopened late Monday. Dagestan’s Ministry of Health said more than 20 people were injured, with two in critical condition. It said the injured included police officers and civilians.
People in the crowd converge at Makhachkala airport in Russia's Dagestan region on Oct. 30, 2023, to denounce Israel's bombardment of Gaza and killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians. The mob stormed into the main airport and onto the landing field to search for Jews on board an airliner coming from Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo)
Russia’s civilian aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, later reported that the airfield had been cleared, but that the airport would remain closed to incoming aircraft until Nov. 6.
Video on social media showed some in the crowd waving Palestinian flags and others trying to overturn a police car. Antisemitic slogans can be heard being shouted and some in the crowd examined the passports of arriving passengers, apparently in an attempt to identify those who were Israeli.
One protester could be seen in the videos holding a sign reading “Child killers have no place in Dagestan.”
Other videos showed a crowd inside an airport terminal trying to break down doors as staff members tried to deter them.
The incident comes as Israeli forces continued to besiege and pummel Gaza in a bid to avenge the Oct. 7 storming of Israel’s border villages by Hamas militants, indiscriminately killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 230 others.
Israel’s relentless bombing of the coastal strip has killed more than 8,000 people, half of them children, according to aid agencies and the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Combo image showing video grabs on the storming of Makhachkala airport in Russia's Muslim region of Dagestan on Sunday. (Screen grabs from videos shared on social media)
The Supreme Mufti of Dagestan, Sheikh Akhmad Afandi, called on residents to stop the unrest at the airport.
“You are mistaken. This issue cannot be resolved in this way. We understand and perceive your indignation very painfully. ... We will solve this issue differently. Not with rallies, but appropriately. Maximum patience and calm for you,” he said in a video published to Telegram.
Dagestan Gov. Sergei Melikov promised consequences for anyone who took part in the violence.
“All Dagestanis empathize with the suffering of victims by the actions of unrighteous people and politicians and pray for peace in Palestine. But what happened at our airport is outrageous and should receive the appropriate assessment from law enforcement. And this will definitely be done!” he wrote on Telegram.
Dagestan and Chechnya are both mainly Muslim areas — known in Russia as “republics” — in a region that has witnessed years of violent tension with the central Russian authorities.
