According to an unnamed Russian official, the situation is comparable to Prigozhin’s military rebellion in June. At the same time, Putin was afraid to talk about rising anti-Semitic sentiments in the Caucasus.
The Kremlin was stunned following riots in Makhachkala that were attributed to anti-Semitic sentiments. This was reported by the Moscow Times on October 30.
According to unnamed Kremlin and government sources, Russian intelligence services and security forces were aware that the situation in Dagestan was escalating on a war footing in Israel, but this did not change anything. Since October 7, when the Hamas group attacked Israel, the North Caucasus has expressed its support for the Gaza Strip, as a significant part of the inhabitants profess Islam.
“The situation was escalating every week. Everyone knew about it, both in the Kremlin, in the FSB and in the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” said an unnamed Kremlin official.
Despite this, the riot at Makhachkala airport, in which thousands of people stormed the runway and passengers from Tel Aviv were nearly massacred, took the Kremlin by surprise, and no one knew what to do next to calm the population. Some even compare this situation to the military rebellion that took place in June.
“Almost everyone around me is stunned. This is a complete repetition of Prigozhin’s rebellion,” the source continued.
Another Kremlin official, who previously worked in law enforcement, told reporters this was “an emergency on a national scale.” He did not rule out that intelligence services knew about the threat in advance, but he was afraid to inform Russian President Vladimir Putin about it.
“This is a failure of domestic policy curators in the Kremlin, intelligence services and local authorities. Everyone is afraid to raise the alarm and warn the president in advance about problems,” the message said.
Let’s remember, on October 29, it was reported that residents of Dagestan raided the airport due to a flight containing “refugees from Israel”. According to Russian media, protesters stopped all passing cars and checked Israeli citizens. Some of them allegedly managed to get onto the runway where the plane departing from Tel Aviv stopped.
Later, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky also responded to the unrest in Dagestan. According to him, hatred towards other nations is quite common in Russia, and this should not be surprising. Such narratives, as the Head of State noted, are voiced every day by television propagandists, pundits and officials.
Source: Focus
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