The mafia storms a plane arriving in Russia from Tel Aviv, authorities say.
A crowd stormed an airport in southern Russia where a commercial flight from Tel Aviv had arrived on Sunday evening, according to Russian state media and videos posted at the scene. The episode followed several anti-Israel protests in the region that could mark a new point of friction for the Kremlin as it wages a war in Ukraine.
Russian authorities announced that the airport where the crowd had formed, in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region of Dagestan, was temporarily closed and riot police were sent to the scene. Dozens of people were arrested and 20 people were injured, including police officers, officials later said.
The Israeli government said in a statement that it was closely following events and expected Russian authorities to protect all Israeli citizens and Jews, and to take strong action against the rioters and what it described as “the wild incitement directed against Jews and Israelis. ”
President Vladimir V. Putin has identified interethnic and interreligious agreement in Russia as a key policy priority. Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic protests in the North Caucasus, a region where Putin fought his first war as Russian leader, could jeopardize that at a time when the Kremlin is also waging a long and bloody war in Ukraine.
It was not immediately clear what exactly had taken place at the airport as unverified videos of the chaotic scene spread across social media. Some people in the videos held Palestinian flags and carried signs opposing the war in Gaza, and some chanted “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”
This was reported by RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency a video from what stood, law enforcement officers gathered on the airport tarmac.
In a video verified by The New York Times, a group of dozens of men, some carrying Palestinian flags, swarm around a parked Red Wings airline plane. “There are no more passengers here,” a man in a yellow safety vest tells the rioters, pointing to the plane. He adds: “I am Muslim.”
In another video verified by The Times, filmed from a plane on a tarmac, a crew member can be heard saying: “Please remain seated and do not try to open the door of the plane. There is an angry crowd outside.”
This is reported by the regional police a statement that they had determined that 150 people had actively participated in the riot, and that 60 had been arrested. Nine police officers were injured in the clashes, two of whom were hospitalized, the statement said.
Dagestan’s Health Ministry said a total of 20 people were injured, including police officers and civilians. Ten people were hospitalized, two of whom were in serious condition, the report said. The police said that local investigators had opened a criminal investigation into the riot and promised that anyone who took part would be held accountable.
The Russian aviation authorities said Sunday that the airport “has been cleared of unauthorized access by civilians.” The Dagestan government announced the situation used to be “under control.”
Sergei Melikov, the head of Dagestan, convicted The rioters said that “there was no honor in swearing at strangers, reaching into their pockets and trying to check their passports,” referring to reports that some protesters had asked passers-by at the airport to prove their nationality.
There were also reports of anti-Israel protests in the North Caucasus, a flammable area in Russia’s south. On Saturday, dozens of people gathered outside a hotel in the city of Khasavyurt, Dagestan, after posts on social media claimed that it was ‘full of Jews’. About 200 people also gathered in the central square of Cherkessk, the capital of the Karachay-Cherkessia republic, to protest the possible arrival of Israeli refugees, according to local news media. reported.
The local authorities in Dagestan accused “extremist” channels run by “Russian enemies” for inciting unrest. Some protests were supported by a Telegram channel linked to a former Russian MP, Ilya Ponomaryov, who fled to Ukraine and became a staunch anti-Kremlin politician. Plans to ‘capture’ the passengers of the incoming flight were shared on the Telegram channel, along with screenshots of the flight schedule, on Saturday and Sunday. Local religious figures in the North Caucasus have done so convicted the protests.
Russia has gone to extraordinary lengths to quash protests over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, which it falsely claimed was fought to rid the country of “Nazis.”
Ukrainian officials were quick to view the events in Russia as a reflection of a deeper culture of hatred that the Kremlin had fomented for years.
“For Russian propaganda talking heads on official television, hate rhetoric is routine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement, pointing to the “terrible videos” coming out of Dagestan. “Hate is what drives aggression and terror. We must all work together to fight hate.”
Aric Toler reporting contributed.