Israel-Gaza war: Russia airport witnesses anti-Israel unrest, Kremlin blames ‘traitors in Ukraine’ | 10 points
- Israel-Gaza War: Russian protestors storm airport in Dagestan amid Gaza war. Crowd surrounds Russian airliner, looking for Israeli passengers, saying, 'We're against Jewish refugees'. Kremlin blames unrest in Dagestan blamed on ‘outside interference’, ‘traitors in Ukraine’
Israel-Gaza War: An unusual development took place in Russia’s Dagestan airport when throes of protestors stormed the premises, ostensibly demonstrating against the arrival of a flight from Israel amid the war in Gaza. The development comes in a country which has been at war with East European neighbour, Ukraine, for almost twenty months now.
According to reports the crowd broke past security, with some making it onto the runway of Makhachkala airport, before they were removed by security forces.
Russia has maintained cordial relations with Gaza's Hamas fighters. For the ongoing war between Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel and Hamas fighters from Gaza, Russia has condemned the civilian deaths in Palestine's Gaza, which has now surged to over 8,300.
Here are ten things to know
-Hundreds of angry men rushed onto the tarmac of the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, late on Sunday, looking for Israeli passengers, according to Russian news reports.
-The crowd broke out onto the landing field and surrounded the airliner belonging to the Russian carrier Red Wings, with seemingly little resistance from the police.
-Video and photos on social media showed some in the crowd waving Palestinian flags and some trying to overturn a police car. Others held hand-written banners saying “Child killers are not welcome in Dagestan” and “We're against Jewish refugees”.
-Some in the crowd examined the passports of arriving passengers, apparently in an attempt to identify those who were Israeli.
-Dagestan's Ministry of Health said more than 20 people were injured, with two in critical condition.
-It said the injured included police officers and civilians. The local Interior Ministry said 60 people were detained in the unrest.
-The Kremlin blamed the unrest on “outside interference,” and Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting will discuss “attempts by the West to use the events in the Middle East to divide the (Russian) society.”
-Further, Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti cited Dagestan Governor Sergei Melikov as saying that the unrest was coordinated in a Telegram channel run by “traitors” based in Ukraine, with the goal of destabilizing the situation in Dagestan and fueling unrest.
-According to Russia's independent news cite Mediazona, local Telegram channels had said before the unrest that “refugees from Israel” were about to arrive in Dagestan. One such channel, Mediazona said, was founded by former Russian lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov, who currently resides in Ukraine and claims to be involved with a guerilla movement inside Russia.
-Russian President Vladimir Putin called a meeting of top security and law enforcement officials on Monday
(With agency inputs)
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Business NewsNewsWorldIsrael-Gaza war: Russia airport witnesses anti-Israel unrest, Kremlin blames ‘traitors in Ukraine’ | 10 points
First Published:30 Oct 2023, 07:18 PM IST
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