Following the anti-Jewish riot in Dagestan’s Makhachkala airport, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov called on his security forces to set a harsh example if the riots were to spread from Dagestan to neighboring Chechnya.
“If we have even one person participating in an unauthorized protest, we should either arrest and imprison them or fire three warning shots in the air. If the person still doesn’t follow the law, then a fourth shot should be fired at his forehead,” Kadyrov said at a government meeting with the participation of Rosgvardiya, RIA Novosti reported.
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“This will deter them from participating again.” he added.
Earlier, Kadyrov had fully supported Putin’s statement regarding the West and Kyiv’s allegedly instigating the riot as part of a psyops campaign meant to “destabilize Russia.”
The Chechen leader’s reactions to the riots, as suggested by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), indicated that he is above all concerned with demonstrating the strength of his authoritarian rule over Chechnya by threatening a violent response to potential future riots.
“Kadyrov’s response to the Oct. 29 antisemitic riots in the Republic of Dagestan suggests that Russian officials may be increasingly concerned about the weakening of authoritarian control in regions on the periphery of the Russian Federation,” the Washington-based ISW reported in a recent analysis.
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On Sunday evening, Oct. 29, a large mob overran an airport in the Republic of Dagestan’s main city after rumors spread that a flight was arriving from Israel.
Hundreds of protesters, many of them chanting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great), broke through doors and barriers at Makhachkala airport, with some charging onto the runway, according to videos posted on social media as well as Russia’s RT and Izvestia.
Insane footage on Russian social media from Makhachkala in the North Caucasus region, where there have been several anti-Semitic protests this weekend.
— max seddon (@maxseddon) October 29, 2023
A crowd of people, some with Palestinian flags, broke into the airport in search of passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv. pic.twitter.com/MZxyvxi6T3
The website Flightradar indicated that a Red Wings flight out of Tel Aviv had landed at Makhachkala at 7:00 p.m., AFP reported.
The independent Russian media outlet Sota said it was a transiting flight that had been due to take off again for Moscow two hours later.
Russia’s Interior Ministry announced on Monday morning that police had taken control of the airport and 83 people had been arrested.
On the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine and the West of having instigated anti-Israel rioting at the Makhachkala airport, an accusation that Washington has called absurd.
Russia’s aviation agency Rosaviatsiya said the airport would remain closed until Nov. 6.
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