Russian diplomacy accused Ukraine on Monday of having played a “key role” in the anti-Israel riots which broke out the day before at an airport in the predominantly Muslim Russian Caucasian republic of Dagestan, which Kiev firmly denied.
A crowd of men invaded the tarmac and terminal of the airport in the capital, Makhachkala, on Sunday evening, amid global tensions linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Moscow blames Ukraine, where Russian forces launched an offensive in February 2022, without providing any evidence.
These clashes were “the result of a planned and externally driven provocation” in which Kiev played a “key and direct” role, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova in a statement. .
The operation aimed to “undermine” relations between Russia’s different religious communities, she added.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attributed responsibility for the assault to “external interference.”
With the “television images of the horrors occurring in the Gaza Strip”, it is “very easy for people with ill intentions to use, to provoke the situation”, he regretted.
The spokesperson for Ukrainian diplomacy, Oleg Nikolenko, denounced an “attempt to shift responsibility” to his country.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, of Jewish faith, judged on Sunday that these incidents demonstrated “the Russian culture of hatred against other nations”.
In response to this violence, Vladimir Putin will chair a meeting Monday evening to “discuss Western attempts to use events in the Middle East to divide Russian society,” according to the Kremlin.
Tracking passengers
Videos, broadcast on social networks and in Russian media on Sunday, showed men checking cars, checking the identity of a passenger, forcing doors into the terminal and gathering at the foot of a plane on the tarmac.
One of them, in one of these videos, holds a sign: “Child killers have no place in Dagestan,” while others shout “Allahu Akbar!” “. Some in the crowd waved Palestinian flags.
A plane from Tel Aviv of the Russian company Red Wings landed on Sunday at 7:00 p.m. local time in Makhachkala (noon in Quebec), according to the specialized website Flightradar24.
The authorities have not yet specified whether the plane and its passengers were able to leave.
On Monday, a major security system was put in place around the airport and employees began to repair damaged barriers, according to an AFP journalist present on site.
The airport suffered “significant damage”, explained its general director. However, it was able to reopen early Monday afternoon, the Russian aviation agency said.
The police arrested 60 people suspected of having stormed it and more than 150 “active participants in unrest” were identified, announced the Russian Interior Ministry, ensuring that search operations were underway to identify all the attackers.
Nine police officers were injured, two of whom were hospitalized, the ministry said.
“Traitors”
The leader of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, pointing the finger at kyiv’s role, claimed that a Telegram channel critical of local authorities, “Outro Dagestan”, was administered from Ukraine by “traitors”.
This channel, followed by around 60,000 people, shared a call to gather at Makhachkala airport on Sunday evening, saying they wanted to prevent the arrival of “undesirable” passengers on the Red Wings flight from Tel Aviv.
Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also raised the alleged role of Ilia Ponomarev, a former Russian parliamentarian who voted against the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and who has since left Russia.
The latter provided financial support to “Outro Dagestan”, according to the independent media Sota. He has not yet responded to a request from AFP.
The war between Israel and Hamas entered its 24th day on Monday. The Gaza Strip is subject to incessant bombardments by the Israeli army, triggered after the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, the deadliest in the history of this country.
While the incident was still ongoing, Israel called on Russia to “protect all Israeli citizens and all Jews.”
The United States, for its part, condemned “anti-Semitic demonstrations”.
Earlier on Sunday, a Jewish center was set on fire in Nalchik, a town in Russia’s Caucasian region of Kabardino-Balkaria, according to RIA Novosti.