Multiple shooting attacks in Russia’s southern Dagestan region have left at least 20 people dead, including more than a dozen policemen, local officials have said.
“This is a day of tragedy for Dagestan and the entire country,” regional governor Sergey Melikov said immediately after the incident.
On the evening of June 23, gunmen attacked an Orthodox church and a synagogue in Dagestan’s coastal city of Derbent.
According to Russian press reports, the attackers torched a religious icon in the church and killed a 66-year-old Orthodox priest.
Both the church and the synagogue reportedly sustained significant fire damage.
In a subsequent statement, Israel’s foreign ministry said the synagogue had been burnt to the ground but that no worshippers had been in the building at the time of the attack.
Simultaneously, gunmen attacked a second Orthodox church and a police checkpoint in Makhachkala, Dagestan’s regional capital, located 75 miles to the north.
At least 15 policemen and four civilians were killed in the latter attack, Russian authorities have said.
“This is an attempt to cleave apart Russia’s unity,” Mr. Melikov said in a social-media post, going on to suggest the attack was orchestrated from abroad.
At least five of the attackers were killed by security forces, according to the governor.
“Search operations will continue until all sleeper cells, which most certainly had foreign support, are uncovered,” he said.
Mr. Melikov did not provide evidence of foreign actors.
Derbent and Makhachkala, which sit on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, are the two largest cities in predominantly Muslim Dagestan.
Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of Russia’s Federation Council (parliament’s upper house), said security agencies would soon identify those who planned and executed the attacks.
“We can be confident that our security forces … will swiftly mop up extremist cells, complete investigations, and determine where the trail of foreign financing leads,” she said in a June 24 social-media post.
Shortly afterward, Moscow’s official investigative committee announced that the five slain gunmen had been identified.
“While thwarting criminal actions, five individuals involved in the criminal act were eliminated,” the committee said in a statement.
“Their identities have been established,” it added without providing more detail.
It remains unclear how many other gunmen—if any—were involved in the coordinated attacks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who often accuses the West of fomenting strife in the Caucasus region, has yet to comment on the incident.
As of publication, no group had claimed responsibility for the attacks.
In March, at least four gunmen opened fire at a popular entertainment venue near Moscow, killing 145 concertgoers and injuring hundreds more.
A branch of the ISIS terrorist group later claimed responsibility for the incident, which was Russia’s deadliest terrorist attack in two decades.
Volatile Region
Russia’s Republic of Dagestan is located in the ethnically diverse North Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian seas.Since the attack in Moscow, Russian authorities have carried out frequent security sweeps in Dagestan aimed at finding and arresting terrorist suspects.
Within the past three months, several suspects have been detained—and charged with planning terrorist acts—after reportedly being found in possession of weapons and explosive devices.
In April, Russian authorities said one suspect arrested in Dagestan had confessed to providing the perpetrators of the Moscow attack with automatic weapons and ammunition.
For almost a decade until 2017, Russia fought a bloody insurgency by armed Islamist groups in Dagestan and the nearby regions of Chechnya and Ingushetia.
In October 2023, Dagestan made global headlines when residents stormed Makhachkala’s international airport to protest against the arrival of a flight from Israel.
Angered by an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip that has left thousands of Palestinians dead, protesters took over the airport terminal and clashed with police.
No Israeli passengers were hurt in the melee.
At the time, the White House condemned the incident as an example of surging “anti-Semitism.”
Some Russian officials, however, blamed the incident on “provocations and online incitement” by malicious foreign actors.
Nikolay Patrushev, head of Russia’s Security Council, recently described the incident as a “vivid example” of the West’s attempts to “destabilize the North Caucasus region.”
Western capitals, including Washington, have described the claims as “typical Russian disinformation.”
Russian officials continue to see Western fingerprints on March’s deadly terrorist attack in Moscow.
They also voice skepticism regarding ISIS’s alleged involvement in the attack, the perpetrators of which were all nationals of Tajikistan.
Several Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly stated that the culprits had tried to flee to Ukraine before they were arrested.
Moscow also claims to have evidence, which it has yet to present, that the perpetrators received advance payment for the attack from Ukrainian sources.
Kyiv vehemently denies the allegations, while the U.S. State Department insists that ISIS “bears sole responsibility” for the deadly incident.
Nevertheless, Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia’s Federal Security Service, recently said that investigations had since confirmed the “role played by Ukraine’s military intelligence” in the attack.
“Ukrainian and Western special services have been recruiting more individuals to stage attacks inside Russia,” Mr. Bortnikov claimed on June 12.
He did not provide evidence for his assertions.
