Riot over plane from Israel draws condemnation
Jews alarmed after hundreds storm airport
An uprising in southern Russia, where rioters stormed an airport tarmac apparently searching for Jewish passengers on a flight from Israel, has shocked Jews in Russia and beyond, drawn condemnation from the Israeli government, and prompted the Kremlin to call an unscheduled meeting to address the clashes.
Hundreds of young men stormed the main airport in the predominantly Muslim republic of Dagestan on Sunday night, searching for a commercial flight from Tel Aviv. Videos and some images on social media showed some of the rioters holding Palestinian flags and carrying signs opposing the war in the Gaza Strip, possibly spurred on by a Telegram messaging channel that urged them to “catch” the passengers of the incoming flight from Israel.
The government in Tel Aviv, in a statement, said Monday that it expected Russian authorities to protect all Israeli citizens and Jews and to act firmly against the rioters, describing the episode as “wild incitement directed at Jews and Israelis.”
At least 20 people were injured in the riot, and dozens were arrested. The government in the predominantly Muslim republic said Monday that the outburst had been calmed and vowed to prevent further clashes. Russian aviation authorities said the airport, in Makhachkala, the republic’s capital, would reopen Tuesday.
The uprising highlighted the challenges the Kremlin faces in managing the various parts of its vast multiethnic and multireligious country. Ethnic tensions in the North Caucasus are a major risk factor for overall Russian stability, given the region’s recent history of war, and incidents of terrorism in Chechnya and Dagestan.
It also underscored how the Kremlin’s decision to distance itself from Israel and from the Israeli military campaign against Hamas in Gaza can cause instability at home. Russia has about 20 million Muslims, including at least 2 million in Moscow, and this population is growing at a fast rate.
In recent days President Vladimir Putin has taken steps suggesting increased concern that the Israeli-Hamas war could lead to ethnic strife in Russia.
He gathered faith leaders last week at the Kremlin to discuss it, saying “interethnic and interfaith accord is the foundation of the Russian state.” And representatives of Hamas were in Moscow last week, prompting Israel to summon the Russian ambassador in Tel Aviv to complain.
The Russians on Monday blamed outsiders for instigating the turmoil. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accused “outside interference” for causing the riots but cited no evidence.
Speaking Monday at a meeting on the crisis in Dagestan, Putin blamed Western special services for the uprising. “The events in Makhachkala yesterday night were instigated including via social networks not least from the Ukrainian territory,” he said, repeating his assertions that the United States was responsible for the crisis in Israel.
Putin has listed interethnic and interreligious accord in Russia as a policy priority. Anti-Israel and antisemitic protests in the North Caucasus region that includes Dagestan, where he 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. Any instability in Russia is good for Ukraine, which since 2014 has recruited disgruntled Muslims including Chechens. Trying to destabilize the Muslim minorities is a longrunning approach to fighting Russia, used by the Germans in World War II and, in the Russian view, by the West in the 1980s during Russia’s war in Afghanistan.
Videos and images shared on social media showed a chaotic scene in Makhachkala. In one video verified by The New York Times, a group of dozens of men, some carrying Palestinian flags, swarms a parked airplane from the carrier Red Wings, apparently after the passengers had disembarked. “There are no passengers here anymore,” a man in a yellow safety vest tells the rioters, pointing at the plane. He adds, “I am Muslim.”