Russia: Storming of airport was a result of 'outside influence'

Law enforcement officers patrol an area outside the airport in Makhachkala on October 30, 2023. [STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images]

The Kremlin said today that the storming of an airport in the capital of the southern Russian region of Dagestan yesterday was the result of “outside influence”, Reuters reports.

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It is well known and obvious that yesterday’s events around Makhachkala airport are largely the result of outside interference, including information influence.”

Peskov said that “ill-wishers” had used widely seen images of suffering in Gaza to stir people up in the predominantly Muslim region in the north Caucasus. He did not specify who the Kremlin believed had engineered the violence, or why.

Russia’s interior ministry said today that 60 people had been arrested after hundreds of protesters stormed the airport in Makhachkala carrying Palestinian flags, shortly after a plane from Israel arrived.

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