- Dagestan attacks kill 19 police, civilians
- Coordinated strikes target religious sites
- Russia hints Ukraine’s involvement in violence
Attacks on police stations, churches, and a synagogue in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have killed 19 police officers and many civilians. Six gunmen were also killed.
At least sixteen persons were transported to hospitals with injuries.
Three days of mourning have been announced in Dagestan, a primarily Muslim region in southern Russia that borders Chechnya.
On the Orthodox festival of Pentecost, two coordinated attacks struck the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala, killing an Orthodox priest.
Sergei Melikov, the head of the Republic of Dagestan, later identified him as Father Nikolai Kotelnikov, who had served in Derbent for almost 40 years.
People wearing black clothing were seen shooting at police cars in social media footage before a convoy of rescue vehicles arrived on the scene.
Gunmen attacked a synagogue and a church in Derbent, which is home to an ancient Jewish community, before setting fire to them.
Islamist attacks have already occurred in Dagestan.
Although the perpetrators have not been formally named, Russian media generally reported that the gunmen included two sons of the chairman of the Sergokalinsky district near Makhachkala, Magomed Omarov, Osman, and Adil. Police apprehended Mr. Omarov.
However, in a Telegram video, the republic’s leader, Sergei Melikov, implied that Ukraine was behind the attack and that Dagestan was now directly involved in Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
We know who organised the terrorist assaults and what their purpose was, he stated.
Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Russian State Duma’s international affairs committee, made similar comments, stating that the Dagestan attacks and a missile strike that killed four people in Russia-occupied Sevastopol on Sunday “could not be a coincidence.
Mr Slutsky stated that these awful incidents were undoubtedly coordinated from overseas to incite panic and separate the Russian people.
However, Dmitry Rogozin, a prominent Russian nationalist in occupied Ukraine, warned that if every incident were blamed on Ukraine and NATO, this pink mist would lead to severe issues.
Russian officials blamed Ukraine and the West for an attack on the Crocus City Hall venue in Moscow in March that killed 147 people, even though the Islamic State claimed responsibility.
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Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to those who lost loved ones in the attacks on Crimea and Dagestan.
On Monday morning, Russian news outlets claimed that the counter-terrorism operation initiated in response to the assaults had ended.
Between 2007 and 2017, the Caucasus Emirate, later known as the Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus, carried out assaults in Dagestan and the neighbouring Russian republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria.
Following the Crocus City Hall incident in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin claimed that “Russia cannot be the target of terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists” because it “demonstrates a unique example of interfaith harmony and inter-religious and inter-ethnic unity.
However, three months ago, Russia’s domestic security organization, the FSB, said that it had foiled an Islamic State plot to attack a Moscow synagogue.
