Published October 31,2023
Subscribe
In response to anti-Semitic riots in the North Caucasus, Russia wants to arm itself more strongly against perceived outside interference, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Tuesday.
Peskov was speaking after President Vladimir Putin met with his security council and the heads of the security authorities the previous evening.
According to the Interfax news agency, Peskov said that the circle of participants showed that the discussion was about "intensified measures to ward off outside interference." He said he could not give details.
In the Muslim-majority North Caucasus Russian republic of Dagestan, a crowd stormed the airport in the regional capital Makhachkala on Sunday, hunting Jewish passengers arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv. More than 20 people were injured and 83 detained.
From the Russian leadership's point of view, these riots were provoked via social media from abroad. The events in the Middle East are being abused to inflame the mood in Russia with manipulated information, Peskov said.
"The events in Makhachkala were inspired among others by social media, not least from the territory of Ukraine and with the hand of the agencies of Western intelligence services," Putin had said at Monday's meeting.
Ukraine rejected the accusation. The events in Dagestan rather showed Putin's loss of control in his own country, said President Volodymyr Zelensky.
