.Russia blames Ukraine and the West for Dagestan airport unrest
Moscow has blamed “external interference” for provoking unrest that closed an airport in Russia’s Muslim-majority Republic of Dagestan, warning that it will not tolerate efforts to “split Russian society”, AP reports.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukraine, with which Russia is fighting a bitter war after invading last year, played a “key role” in fomenting an anti-Israel protest and subsequent violence at the airport. Russian officials have also inferred Western interference.
Hundreds stormed Dagestan’s main airport, ostensibly to protest against the arrival of a flight from Israel amid its war with Gaza, on Sunday.
The crowd broke past security, with some making it on to the Makhachkala airport runway before they were removed by security forces. Twenty people were injured in the melee, including nine police officers, according to Russia’s interior ministry. Police have since arrested 60 “active participants in the unrest”. Russia’s foreign ministry on Monday accused Kyiv of helping to orchestrate the airport turmoil.
“The criminal Kyiv regime played a direct and key role in carrying out the latest destructive act,” Russia’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
Moscow also accused unnamed foreign actors of inciting the turmoil, saying they had used images of human suffering in Gaza to drum up tensions.
“Yesterday’s events at Makhachkala airport are, to a large extent, the result of external interference,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
President Vladimir Putin will meet with Russia’s defence minister and spy chiefs to discuss “the West’s attempts to use the events in the Middle East to split Russian society,” Peskov said.
