The videos are all over social media of the airport in Makhachkala being overrun by Russian Muslims from the Dagestan region. A flight from Tel-Aviv was arriving on a Russian airline and the population of the area converged on the airport looking for Jewish arrivals. The scenes are somewhat disturbing.
Follow-up reports showed the local police had to be backed up by Russian military in order to clear the airport. The Makhachkala airport will remain closed for a week to ensure operations can be stabilized.
A note of narrative caution. Something just doesn’t make sense about this. The Dagestan region of Russia is predominantly Muslim; if the flight from Israel actually had Russian Jews on board, why would they land there? Something about this is sketchy. Additionally, how did the local crowd know a flight from Israel was arriving. The story of the airport chaos was seeded via video into social media and is now being spread via MSM.
MOSCOW — Hundreds of people on Sunday stormed into the main airport in Russia’s Dagestan region and onto the landing field to protest the arrival of an airliner from Israel, Russian news agencies and social media reported.
Authorities closed the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, and police converged on the facility. There were no immediate reports of injuries or arrests.
Russian news reports said people in the crowd were shouting antisemitic slogans and tried to storm the airliner belonging to Russian carrier Red Wings.
Video on social media showed some in the crowd on the landing field waving Palestinian flags, protesters attempting to overturn a police car and others checking the passports of passengers who had arrived in Makhachkala.
In a statement released Sunday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel “expects the Russian law enforcement authorities to protect the safety of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they may be and to act resolutely against the rioters and against the wild incitement directed against Jews and Israelis.” Netanyahu’s office added that the Israeli ambassador to Russia was working with Russia to keep Israelis and Jews safe.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs for Russia’s North Caucasian Federal District, where Dagestan is located, stated that CCTV footage would be used to establish the identities of those who stormed the airport, and that those involved would be brought to justice. (read more)
MOSCOW TIMES …”The independent Medizona news website reported that the demonstration was prompted by calls spread on the Telegram messaging app earlier on Sunday to block a plane scheduled to arrive directly from the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.” (more)
Comrade Suspicious Cat remains, well, suspicious….
