Attacks in Russia’s Dagestan ‘a bad omen for Putin’ | DW News

authorities say at least 15 police officers and four civilians are dead after gunman launched simultaneous attacks in two cities in Russia’s dagistan region they took place as the country was celebrating the Orthodox Festival of Pentecost local officials say a synagogue two Orthodox churches and a police traffic post were targeted intense gunfights broke out and seemingly coordinated attacks here in the dagistan capital of mahachkala armed militants roamed the streets footage from eyewitnesses shows the gunman shooting police officers several were killed the relevant services and law enforcement agencies worked quickly but unfortunately there were losses we offer our sincere condolences to the families and friends whose sons and brothers the militants also targeted a church later setting it on fire meanwhile the city of derbent which is around 120 kilm away was also under attack a synagogue was set Al light and a priest was killed at an Orthodox Church while no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks the Republic of dagistan has been targeted by Islamic militants in the past Russia’s investigative committee has launched an investigation into what it called acts of Terror I’d like to welcome Olivier Roa a French political scientist and professor at the European University Institute his work focuses on political Islam and he is an expert on Central Asia I’d like to begin by first looking at the facts we know surrounding these attacks in dagistan in your view do they follow the pattern of designated terrorist groups like the Islamic State yes absolutely they are targeting you know religious non-muslim of course religious establishment synagogue and and churches and they are putting a big br to the local government but also by definition to Puttin now this the post Soviet era in dagistan was was characterized by uprisings and violence and in 2017 Russia officially declared this Rebellion defeated is is this now indicative that there is a danger that Russia will lose control again we have still three hot beds of radicalism in Russia one is Dagestan by definition the other is tesia and the third is Tajikistan and now most of the terrorist who did operate recently not only in Russia but also in Europe are from one of the so what we see in dagistan is a very bad Omen for Putin because it it shows that the Islamic state is very well rooted two of the attackers were the sons of a local District officer a well-known guy so it means that the state apparatus itself seems to have been penetrated by the what kind of reaction might we expect from the Russian state in response to this latest attack as usual to to accuse NATO and Ukraine and to negate the fact that there is a great resentment among Russian Muslims because all these guys in dagistan and ches they have the Russian citizenship so clearly it show the failure of the of Putin to Ally with Muslim conservative like kov in Chia this didn’t prevent the radicalization of over young Muslims and especially the youth and uh the fact that this radicalization is targeting directly the Russian power indeed uh the Kremlin has been fairly quick to accuse so-called foreign forces of having supported these attacks uh especially Ukraine as you say so so just to be clear is is there any reason to believe this claim from the kemin no absolutely not first Ukraine is generally not targeting civilians in Russia or elsewhere secondly Ukraine is strongly supporting Israel especially about the Gaza Affair so in this sense the attack of the synagogue is some sort of reprisals you know about the against the Jews and the Israelis because so totally contrad the policy of Ukraine to have the best relationss possible with Israel indeed last October dagistan made headlines when anti-semitic riots broke out at the airport in the city of makach Kala and the attacks yesterday were directed um in part against synagogues among other places do you do you see a connection there yeah there is a general hostility you know to what they call cism which means of course also the local Jews but they also attack orthodo churches so it means that they are trying to drive non-muslims out of dagistan so there is a clear clearly here dimension of jihad against non non-muslims and uh of course the Jewish uh um um religious communities and the Russian religious communities were in Putin so it’s also a way to uh to show that Putin’s power is in rather Fe weak in this area Olivia from the European University Institute thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us on DW today thank you

Authorites say at least 15 police officers and four civilians are dead after gunmen launched simultaneous attacks in two cities in Russia’s Dagestan region. They took place as the country was celebrating the Orthodox festival of Pentecost. Local officials say a synagogue, two Orthodox churches and a police traffic post were targeted.

00:00 Intro and report
01:47 DW speaks with Olivier Roy, political scientist and professor at the European University Institute

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#Dagestan #Russia #Terrorism

41 comments

  1. Taliban retook power in Afghanistan following the chaotic US withdrawal in 2021, President Joe Biden vowed the country that once harboured Osama bin Laden would “never again . . . become a terrorist safe haven”.

    Yet a surge in international terrorist attacks and threats linked to Afghanistan are raising alarms among governments that the country that once sheltered the masterminds of the September 11 2001 attacks is again becoming a hotspot for jihadi groups with global ambitions.

  15. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the Wagner Group behind this attack as the organization's leaders were recently assassinated presumably by Russian fighter jets, according to Wikipedia. If this is true, this would explain why there is so little coverage on who may be responsible for this attack. Not good, not good at all.

  21. Putin are the sponsor and instigator of these attacks against his own people. He did nothing about the concert hall attack instead he blame Ukraine and bomb Ukraine cities, killing innocent women and children. It's Kadirov people's and his parliamentarians relatives participating in these attacks. They will investigate just like the last attack , nothing will come of it just more of these attacks.

  22. Imagine being an empire and while distracted with conquests, parts of the empire are not taken care of properly and things start to fall apart. Not surprising, actually.

  26. The Russians made millions of civilian victims, old people, women, children, innocent people, in the wars of occupation fought in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Georgia, Transnistria, Syria, Ukraine! The Russians have their hands stained with innocent blood and until they pay a blood tribute and recognize the massacres committed, so that they are punished, they will not have peace in their country! Putin is also guilty!

  27. Don't worry Russia, China will look after the entire eastern side of your country. The majority of the people there are ethnically Chinese anyway.

  29. The reality is Russian tooke control of these provinces by force and tricking Persian empire all those countries with a suffix of (Ostan) which means province in Persian language were a part of Iran but according to some bad treaties they were separated now when Russian tries to annex Ukrain to its territory on the other side some territories will be lost

  30. The way the word "terrorism" is used under the kremlin is quite loose since it only applies to what they want it to be. Never how they behave. Their disregard for Human life but their own objectively means terrorism is not a tragedy but an opportunity.

  32. Quite discussed with majority of comments. In the end of the day people died and no country should experience terrorist attacks. My condolences, I hope those insanities will stop soon.

  36. Look, I hate Putin and what he has done as much as any sane person. Though a terrorist attack against civilians, religious and police who might just be keeping the peace is just wrong.

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