Russian authorities detain 80 people over Dagestan airport hunt for Jews

Authorities have detained at least 80 people allegedly involved in antisemitic riots in Russia’s Dagestan airport. Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed an airport in Russia’s predominantly Muslim Dagestan region, where a plane from Israel had just arrived. The incident forced the security forces to close the airport and remove the demonstrators. According to a report by Kommersant, the case has now been transferred to SKR, Russia’s equivalent of the FBI, for investigation. Some 150 suspects have so far been identified while searches are underway. Videos from the Makhachkala airport showed some in the crowd waving Palestinian flags and others trying to overturn a police car. Anti-Semitic 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.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine and the West of instigating anti-Israel rioting at Dagestan’s Makhachkala airport the previous day, an accusation that Washington has called absurd. Security forces have detained over 80 people since the incident, which saw rioters in the Muslim-majority region take over the runway on Sunday evening in an attempt to encircle a plane that had flown in from Israel. “The events in Makhachkala last night were instigated through social networks, not least from Ukraine, by the hands of agents of Western special services,” Putin said in a televised meeting. Speaking to high-ranking members of his Security Council, Putin said there had been “attempts” to destabilise Russian society and accused the US of sowing instability in the Middle East. “Who is organising the deadly chaos and who benefits from it today, in my opinion, has already become obvious… It is the current ruling elites of the US and their satellites who are the main beneficiaries of world instability,” Putin said. With inputs from AFP