An angry mob stormed an airport in the predominately Muslim region of Dagestan last year
A Russian court has handed lenghty prison sentences to five men convicted of participating in the 2023 anti-Jewish riot in the Muslim-majority region of Dagestan.
The beginning of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza has sparked a wave anti-Semitic incidents in the Muslim-majority republics of Russia’s Northern Caucasus, where local politicians and celebrities often speak out in solidarity with the Palestinians.
On October 29, a large mob chating anti-Semitic slogans broke through the security perimeter of the Makhachkala International Aiport and ran onto the tarmac. It was later determined that rioters had believed rumors on Telegram and social media that a plane arriving from Tel Aviv was carrying “Jewish refugees.”
The rioters clashed with security and police, as well as paralyzed the work of the airport and caused extensive damage to its infrastructure. They had failed to enter any aircraft or injure passagers, however.
On Friday, a court in the southern city of Armavir sentenced five men to between six and nine years in prison for rioting and assaulting officials. According to the court, they were motivated by “national and regiloius hatred” when they joined the mob. All of the defendants had denied any wrongdoing.
Some officials had suggested that the riot may have been incited from abroad. In November, President Vladimir Putin accused the US and Ukraine of “attempting to organize Jewish pogroms.”
The leadership of Dagestan and local Muslim clerics condemned the violence, with Governor Sergey Melikov vowing “no forgiveness” to those involved in the storming of the airport.
Dagestan’s interior minister, Abdurashid Magomedov, said in July that 140 people had remained in custody in connection with the riots, while 1,200 people had received administrative penalties.
