Fact-Checking | Are the United States and Ukraine Responsible for Anti-Semitism in Dagestan?

Sergei Melikov, the President of Dagestan, told Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, on Thursday, November 2, that '150 organizers and participants in the anti-Jewish riot on November 1 have been arrested.' According to the Poligraph website, a fact-checking project of Voice of America, hundreds gathered at the airport in the city of 'Makhachkala,' the capital of Dagestan, Russia, to prevent the entry of passengers arriving from Tel Aviv, Israel, into this autonomous republic. Dagestan police managed to expel this group, which held anti-Israeli placards and Palestinian flags while chanting slogans in support of Palestine, from Makhachkala airport after several hours. Dagestan is home to about 1,200 Caucasian Jews of Iranian descent. Vladimir Putin, who condemned Israel's attacks on Gaza, attributed the anti-Jewish riot in Makhachkala to the 'United States and its satellites.' According to Poligraph, it seems that attributing anti-Jewish riots to the United States and Ukraine is part of the official Russian narrative, as several senior Russian officials have repeated this claim. These officials include Sergei Melikov, the President of Dagestan; Yuri Chaika, Vladimir Putin's envoy to the North Caucasus; Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson; and officials from the Russian Foreign Ministry. In this context, Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, stated on November 1 that Russia has evidence indicating that Ukraine was behind this incident. None of these allegations against Ukraine and the United States have been proven. These claims have emerged as the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, reported that calls for violence began from a Russian-language Telegram channel named 'Morning Dagestan.' According to Poligraph, the connection of this channel with Ilya Ponomarev, an opposition figure living in Ukraine, is at the center of Russia's accusations against Ukraine and the United States. In a contact with Poligraph, Ilya Ponomarev stated that he created the 'Morning Dagestan' channel as part of a 'project against conscription in Russia,' but after a while, he handed it over and stopped funding it in 2022. However, the BBC reported that he referred to this channel as 'our channel' in September and mentioned it as 'part of his operations' in October. According to this report, Ilya Ponomarev's contradictory statements do not prove that the recent anti-Semitic tone of this channel has any connection with Ukrainian or American officials. 'Morning Dagestan,' which was blocked by Telegram following accusations of inciting anti-Jewish riots, previously claimed to be run by someone 'born in Dagestan and who has lived there all his life.' On the other hand, Fedor Klimenko, the former editor of Ilya Ponomarev's media sources, stated that Ponomarev has not controlled 'Morning Dagestan' for more than a year, and Abakar Agalarov, a Russian refugee residing in Istanbul and a long-time supporter of Hamas, runs it. All of this occurs while since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian officials have actively promoted anti-Jewish sentiments. In May 2022, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, claimed that 'Hitler had Jewish blood.' A few months ago, Vladimir Putin also stated, 'The West has placed someone at the head of modern Ukraine who is a Jew, with Jewish roots and Jewish origins.' Sergei Danilov, the director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies in Ukraine, considers the riot in Makhachkala a result of anti-Israeli propaganda in Russian state media. 'The Caucasus problem,' an independent online media outlet in Russian, reported that the Hamas-Israel war has led to protests by Muslims in the North Caucasus. In this context, residents of Dagestan attempted to gather in the central square of Makhachkala on October 17. Subsequently, on November 1, several hundred gathered at the 'Flamingo' hotel in Kamaiura, Dagestan, demanding the expulsion of Jews from that hotel. Following this, a protest was held at the local government building in the city of Cherkessk, where participants demanded a ban on the entry of Jews into this republic. On November 1, an anonymous group outside a Jewish cultural center in Nalchik burned tires and painted anti-Jewish graffiti on the walls. Additionally, on November 3, a woman named Leila stated in a message that the real estate company she works for does not rent houses to Jews, citing death threats faced by those who rented their houses to Jewish visitors. Protesters against the Hamas-Israel war in Dagestan clashed with airport police and Israeli passengers. An angry crowd with anti-Jewish slogans attacked the flight of Israeli citizens in Dagestan, and the White House criticized Putin for his 'silence in the face of anti-Israeli protests' in Russia. As the Tel Aviv flight landed, an 'anti-Israeli' crowd stormed an airport in Russia.