After attack in Dagestan, Russian authorities minimize Islamic State claims

The pro-Kremlin media appears to be downplaying a claim by Al Azaim Media, the Russian-language broadcaster linked to the Islamic State in Khorasan province. Al Azaim Media released a statement late Sunday evening saying the attack was carried out in response to calls for attacks in the name of the Islamic State (ISIS) organization.

Dagestan Governor Sergei Melikov said six suspects were killed in the operation.

“Our latest call did not keep us waiting long,” Al Azaim said in its post. “Our brothers from the Caucasus let us know that they are still strong. They have shown what they are capable of.”

There were apparently unrests in Dagestan in connection with Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In October, hundreds of people stormed Makhachkala airport in search of Jewish passengers arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv.

At the time, Russian Foreign Ministry officials claimed without evidence that Ukraine played “a direct and decisive role” in the October airport riots, calling it a “provocation” orchestrated from outside Russia.

In March, gunmen allegedly linked to Islamic State attacked the Crocus City Hall concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow in Khorasan province, killing 145 people. At the time, Russian security officials also blamed Ukraine, and the Kremlin denied Washington’s claim that US intelligence had issued a specific warning before the attack.

While Russia’s deadly war in Ukraine currently overshadows virtually all other events in Russia, some politicians have warned against seeing Kiev’s hand in every incident.

If every terrorist attack is blamed on “the intrigues of Ukraine and NATO, this pink fog will cause us big problems,” said Russian Senator Dmitry Rogozin.

On Sunday, gunmen opened fire at several locations in the two cities, including at the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary in Derbent, where 66-year-old priest Nikolai Kotelnikov was killed. They also attacked the city’s only synagogue, which was apparently empty at the time.

But even before local and national security forces had brought the violence under control on Sunday, officials were already blaming the United States and Ukraine.

Local MP Abdulkarim Gadzhiev blamed Sunday’s attack on “the secret services of Ukraine and NATO countries.” The pro-Kremlin leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky, who heads the foreign affairs committee in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, blamed “external forces” whose aim was to divide Russians and “sow panic.”

The chairwoman of the Federation Council, the upper house, Valentina Matviyenko, described the attacks planned abroad as “a tragedy”.

“The tragedy in Dagestan is an absolutely cynical and carefully planned provocation from abroad,” Matviyenko said, adding that Russian security authorities would identify those behind the attacks and “quickly eradicate extremist cells.”

A local official, Magomed Omarov, district head of Dagestan’s Sergokala district, was detained after two of his sons allegedly took part in the attacks. Both were killed by police officers.

The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, called for a full investigation into Sunday’s attacks. The Investigative Committee said the attackers had been identified, according to the state news agency Tass.

More than two dozen other people were injured in the apparently coordinated attacks.

In Russia, there have been repeated attacks by declared allies of IS.

Earlier this month, two prisoners who had pledged allegiance to IS took two prison guards hostage at a detention center in the Rostov region of southern Russia. Russian authorities quickly ended the siege of the prison, killed the hostage-takers and released the prisoners.

In recent years, thousands of Dagestanis left Russia to fight for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria – an exodus apparently encouraged by the Kremlin. But hundreds were eventually brought back to serve their prison sentences after ISIS was defeated by a US-led coalition.

The Islamic State has continued to claim responsibility for attacks in Russia, including a deadly attack on a popular Moscow concert hall in March. At least 137 people were killed in the worst terrorist attack in Russia in 20 years.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday rejected the suggestion that Islamist militancy was on the rise in Dagestan. “Society is stable, and the kind of criminal behavior that we saw in Dagestan yesterday is not supported by society, neither in Russia nor in Dagestan,” Peskov said.

Another sign of deep tensions between Moscow and Washington is the fact that several Russian politicians, including the deputy chairman of the Security Council, former President Dmitry Medvedev, linked the attack on Dagestan to a Ukrainian missile attack on occupied Crimea on Sunday that killed four civilians, including two children.

On Monday, Peskov accused the US of being responsible for the attack on Crimea, saying this must “have consequences.”

The Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had shot down five ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles supplied to Ukraine by the United States. The missiles were fired at Crimea on Sunday, it said.

The ministry said one of the missiles exploded over the city of Sevastopol after it deviated from its flight path and was intercepted by Russian air defenses.

Without providing any evidence, the Department of Defense claimed that all ATACMS targets were determined by the U.S. military.

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned US Ambassador Lynne Tracy on Monday to file a formal complaint about “the targeted Ukrainian missile attack on Sevastopol, which caused numerous casualties, including children.”

Peskov described the attack on Crimea as “absolutely barbaric” and blamed the US and Europe for it.

“Just last week, the president repeatedly spoke about who is aiming technologically advanced missiles at targets, and it is not the Ukrainians,” Peskov said. “It is clear who is firing these missiles.”

He urged journalists to “ask my colleagues in Europe and especially in Washington why their governments are killing Russian children. Just ask them this simple question.”

Peskov did not comment on the measures Russia would take in his daily conference call with journalists, but referred to previous threats by President Vladimir Putin to supply missiles to countries hostile to the United States.

Peskov said Russia is revising its nuclear doctrine to reflect “today’s realities.” Current doctrine says Russia can use nuclear weapons if its existence is threatened or in retaliation for a nuclear attack.

Last week, during a visit to North Korea and Vietnam, Putin said Moscow was “thinking about” revising the doctrine. Putin also threatened to supply Russian weapons to North Korea in retaliation for Western arms sales to Ukraine.

The West “supplies weapons to Ukraine and says, ‘We have no control here, so the way Ukraine uses them is none of our business,'” Putin said. “Why shouldn’t we take the same position and say we supply something to someone, but we have no control over what happens after that? Let them think about it.”

Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.