Russia’s Federal Aviation Authority was forced to divert flights from an airport in the country’s south after an angry mob stormed the runway late on Sunday to intercept a passenger jet arriving from Israel.
Hundreds of people stormed into Makhachkala airport in the Dagestan region, which is predominantly Muslim, after hearing that a flight had landed from Tel Aviv. The Russian interior ministry said 60 people were arrested.
New arrivals started to disembark but were quickly forced back on to the plane as the protesters, some of whom were waving Palestinian flags, ran towards them. Footage from the scene showed an aviation official directing passengers back on to the aircraft belonging to Red Wings — a Russian carrier — shouting “quickly!” as people ran towards them.
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“Due to the entry of unknown persons on to the tarmac of Makhachkala airport, a decision was made to temporarily close the airport for servicing arrival and departure flights,” said a statement from Russia’s federal aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya.
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“The measures are in effect until the situation normalises. Law enforcement agencies are on site,” it added. Red Wings flight WZ4728 remained on the runway. However, other flights scheduled to land at the airport have been diverted.
Further footage showed crowds shouting “Allahu Akbar” as they coursed through the airport, as well as Russia’s national guard police carrying riot shields descending on the airport.
Footage from inside an adjacent plane shows men being wrestled to the ground on the tarmac by Russian policemen. Crowds outside the airport also prevented buses from leaving the scene, demanding to check people’s passports as they tried to leave.
The health ministry said that about 20 people had been injured, ten of whom had been admitted to hospital.
According to the Russian interior ministry, the airport was “fully under the control of law enforcement agencies” and a total of 150 “active participants in the unrest” had been identified. The local branch of Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti said that it had opened a criminal case “under Article 212 — mass riots”, noting that the “commission of this crime is punishable by imprisonment for a term of eight to 15 years”.
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Makhachkala airport will be closed to air traffic from Monday evening until the early hours of November 6, it noted.
“Israel expects the Russian authorities to protect all Israeli citizens and all Jews, and to act decisively against the rioters and against incitement to violence against Jews and Israelis,” the office of Binyamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, said in a statement.
President Zelensky of Ukraine noted on social media that “this is not an isolated incident in Makhachkala but rather part of Russia’s widespread culture of hatred towards other nations, which is propagated by state television, pundits, and authorities,” calling the footage “appalling”.
Anti-Israeli and antisemitic sentiment has been escalating over the weekend in the Muslim-majority Caucasus regions. There was a further arson attack on a Jewish cultural centre in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, on Sunday, with footage from the scene showing the phrase “death to Jews” written on the building.
With the agreement of the local Ministry of Internal Affairs, demonstrators also entered hotels in the city of Khasavyurt in Dagestan, looking for Israelis and Jews late on Saturday night. They demanded the eviction of “refugees from Israel”, after local Telegram channels suggested that one was “full of Jews”.
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Earlier on Sunday, the Telegram channel Utro Dagestan also called on people to descend on the airport at 7pm local time, specifically to ambush the flight from Israel to “make the plane turn around and fly away”.
Late on Saturday, Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, also posted an impassioned Telegram post, saying: “Israeli fascism today is in no way inferior, if not superior, to Hitler’s.”
Sergey Melikov, the head of Dagestan, blamed outside misinformation, “spread by enemies of Russia” for the recent spike in anti-Israeli and antisemitic incidents, adding that they do not “in any way reflect on those who succumbed to provocations and allowed themselves to be manipulated ... Because of the fakes spread by our enemies, very young guys found themselves on the verge of breaking the law!”
The Presidium of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (DUM) issued a statement calling for Muslims to step back. “We urge Russian Muslims ... not to succumb to provocative calls, to preserve humanity and patriotic feelings for our united homeland — Russia,” a statement published online read. “Any calls and actions aimed at persecuting people on national and religious grounds are criminal.”
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt was the chief rabbi of Moscow until he was forced to step down in 2022 after criticising the war in Ukraine. Now president of the Conference of European Rabbis, the largest alliance of rabbis on the continent, he told The Times: “The rabbis of Europe call on President Putin to stop the riots against Jews in the Caucasus and ensure their safety.”
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He added: “The Jewish world is very concerned about the thousands of Jews living in Dagestan.”
