Russia has experienced two terrorist attacks in just three months. We know this

CNN
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Russia has been shaken by another serious terrorist attack. At least 19 people were killed and 25 injured in the apparently coordinated shootings at several places of worship in Russia’s southernmost republic of Dagestan.

The attack is the second in the last three months, after more than 130 people were killed in a concert hall near Moscow in March in a terrorist attack claimed by ISIS-K. The attack calls into question President Vladimir Putin’s self-proclaimed reputation as a leader capable of maintaining order in the vast, turbulent country.

The rise in violence comes amid a resurgence of long-simmering ethnic tensions, exacerbated by efforts to bolster Russian military forces in the face of Putin’s ongoing war against Ukraine, as well as ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

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In two cities in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan, gunmen opened fire on several places of worship and a police traffic control, killing at least 15 police officers and four civilians, including a priest, on Sunday.

Two synagogues – one in the city of Derbent and one in the city of Makhachkala – were attacked, according to a statement by the Russian Jewish Congress (RJC).

Attackers set fire to the synagogue building in Derbent “with Molotov cocktails,” while police and security forces were killed in the attack outside, the RJC said.

In the provincial capital Makhachkala, Russian state news agency TASS reported that a church security guard was killed in a shootout at the Svyato-Uspensky Monastery and 19 people were locked inside the compound during an attack. An attack was also reported on a police traffic post in Makhachkala.

While there was no immediate announcement of responsibility for the attacks, law enforcement officials told TASS that the attackers were “supporters of an international terrorist organization.”

The Investigative Directorate of the Russian Investigative Committee for the Republic of Dagestan announced that it had launched a terrorist investigation into the attacks in accordance with the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

TASS reported on Monday that five of the gunmen had been identified and that some of them were related to the leader of the Sergokalinsky district, which lies between Derbent and Makhachkala. One of the men was identified as former mixed martial arts fighter Gadzhimurad Kagirov. Kagirov took part in the Derbent attack and is also a cousin of Sergokalinsky district chief Magomed Omarov, it said. Omarov’s son and nephew were also among the attackers, authorities claimed.

Dagestan is located in the Russian Caucasus region on the western coast of the Caspian Sea.

The republic is in many ways a microcosm of Russia’s diversity. The mountainous region is home to over 30 ethnic groups with different languages, and it is a predominantly Muslim republic that has historically been home to a variety of Islamic religious practices.

The Jewish population is negligible – Judaism is one of Dagestan’s long-established religions and is practiced by communities of Mountain Jews who speak a type of Persian. But after centuries of coexistence with Muslim neighbors, the population has shrunk due to emigration.

The Caucasus was largely incorporated into the Russian Empire in the 19th century and had a long history of resisting Moscow’s rule during the Tsarist, Soviet and post-Soviet periods.

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After the collapse of the Soviet Union, insurgents in neighboring Chechnya waged two separatist wars of independence – Russia labeled these as terrorism and responded with tactics that left large parts of the capital Grozny in ruins. Putin then installed the feared warlord Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya, who has ruled with an iron fist ever since.

In Dagestan, Russian security forces fought an Islamist insurgency in the mountainous region in the 2000s that spilled over from neighboring Chechnya, but attacks have become less frequent in recent years.

But recent events have once again put the historically troubled region under pressure.

Religious and ethnic tensions in Russia

Russia is home to over 200 ethnic minorities. The country spans eleven time zones and is home to around 144 million people.

Some of these communities have been hit particularly hard by Putin’s war in Ukraine, as ethnic minorities have been disproportionately mobilized to confront the horror of Moscow’s humanitarian aid efforts.

In 2022, protests against Putin’s mobilization orders broke out in several ethnic minority regions, including Dagestan. A video geolocated by CNN from that time shows women in the capital Makhachkala begging for police outside a theater.

“Why are you taking our children? Who attacked whom? It was Russia that attacked Ukraine,” she was heard saying in the video.

Israel’s war against Hamas following the brutal attacks of October 7 has also led to rising tensions around the world, fuelled by daily images of destruction in the Gaza Strip and in the Caucasus.

Putin performed a delicate balancing act at the international level, presenting himself as a potential mediator and calling on both sides to exercise restraint – a stance for which he received praise from Hamas.

However, that confidence was shattered later that month when anti-Semitic rioters stormed Makhachkala-Uytash airport in Dagestan, where a flight from Israel was arriving.

According to local authorities, at least 20 people were injured and 60 arrested in the chaotic clashes. Several videos on social media showed a crowd inside the airport and on the tarmac, with some waving the Palestinian flag and others pushing through closed doors in the international terminal.

Interfaith violence is something that Russian President Putin is “very, very concerned about,” said former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty in response to Sunday’s attacks in Dagestan.

Russia has a complex web of relationships in the Middle East: Putin supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (an enemy of Israel); he relies on Iran (another enemy of Israel) to provide him with a supply of drones for attacks on Ukraine; and he is a high-five of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, another ruler in the region.

He also maintained friendly working relations with his Israeli colleagues, even though his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cooled.

The coordinated attacks in Dagestan came just weeks after Russia suffered its worst terrorist attack in decades.

In March, more than 130 people were killed when attackers stormed a popular concert complex on the outskirts of Moscow.

ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the massacre and four gunmen from the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan were charged with terrorism.

The shocking terrorist attack came just a week after Putin won a staged election that tightened his grip on the country he has ruled since the turn of the century.

For a president who has long promised Russians security and stability, the major attack on Russian soil was another severe blow.

The emotions triggered by the shooting – together with the disturbing videos – triggered a wave of xenophobia among some people towards Central Asian migrant workers in general.

Migrants from the Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union – Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan – have traditionally been a valuable source of cheap labor for Russia.

After the attacks in March, Putin called on Russia to remain united.

“We must never forget that we are a multinational, multi-religious country. We must always treat our brothers, representatives of other faiths, with respect, as we always do – Muslims, Jews, everyone,” he said.

But Sunday’s attack in Dagestan shows that Russia’s border regions continue to be riddled with deep rifts.