Dagestan, attacks on a church and a synagogue: 19 dead including a priest, 25 injured and at least 6 terrorists killed

Blood and terror in Dagestan. Two almost simultaneous attacks shocked the two main cities of the southernmost Russian Republic. Around 6pm local time, 5pm in Italy, terrorists armed with machine guns went into action in Derbent, on the Caspian Sea, and in Makhachkala, the capital. Russian Telegram channels were immediately filled with images of a burning synagogue and an Orthodox church under attack in Derbent. The messages from citizens shocked by the shootings and the news arriving from the authorities gave a sense of chaos. The parish priest, Father Nikolai, was among the first victims: and, according to some Russian accounts on X, still without official confirmation, he was “slaughtered” or “beheaded”. The budget is entirely provisional speaks of 4 civilians, 15 agents and 6 terrorists killed. At least 25 injured. The fighting lasted for hours.

Around 8pm dozens of faithful from the Derbent church were still stranded, perhaps hostages of the terrorists, perhaps refugees in a room, but still unable to escape. Late at night the hunt for the attackers was still underway. Armored troop transport vehicles drove through the city streets firing heavy machine guns. A “state of emergency” has been proclaimed throughout Dagestan and, at night, we searched a white Volkswagen Polo on which some terrorists fled.

In the absence of claims it is logical to suspect Islamic extremismperhaps directly Islamic State of Khorasan (Isis-K) which already struck in March at Crocus City Hall, on the outskirts of Moscow. At the time, the victims of a handful of rather naive terrorists were 145 dead and over 500 injured. This is also the hypothesis supported by the agency Taxaccording to which the simultaneous attacks on places of worship in Derbent and on a checkpoint in Makhachkala were carried out by “an international terrorist organisation”.

ISIS-K may have struck not only as part of his fight against the “imperialist and infidel” power of Vladimir Putin, but also in solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza.

That of ISIS-K, however, is only the first lead. Yesterday’s assaults could also have a internal genesis in Dagestan. Among the terrorists shot down yesterday there are also two sons and a grandson of Magomed Omarov, Dagestan district governor, a well-known political figure who had been collaborating with Moscow without problems for years. According to local media Omarov was stopped by the police“invited” to resign immediately and his house searched.

Dagestan has an overwhelming Sunni Muslim majority and in the 1990s it became the rear of the Chechen war for independence with what followed in terms of attacks, arrests and the police state. Yesterday the words of the combatant president arrived from neighboring Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, famous for his ruthless repression of secessionism and participation in the war against Ukraine. The guarantor of the pax Putiniana in Chechnya also poses as a Muslim leader: “The cowardly attacks in Dagestan aim to create discord between religions.” As per his style, Kadyrov added that terrorists «have no faith or nation», they are non-people «who must be killed on the spot».

From Moscow, however, the condemnation for the shootings called Ukraine into question and also the “foreign secret services”, in particular Americans, as happened on the occasion of the Crocus City Hall massacre. It is a useful narrative for the Kremlin to mobilize domestic public opinion in the war against Kiev: the great American enemy is trying to weaken Putin’s Russia both by arming Ukraine and by financing Islamist terrorism.

Thus the vice-president of the Security Council in Moscow, Dmitry Medvedev, lumped the “massacre in Dagestan” with yesterday’s Ukrainian bombing of Crimea. Medvedev called them “cowardly terrorist attacks against our people, committed on an Orthodox holiday.” The Ukrainian regime and «crazy fanatics are no different to us». Many Russian media report that terrorists in Dagestan used “weapons supplied by NATO” just as the missiles used to hit Crimea were American Atacms. The images circulated on Telegram do not confirm the thesis. The machine guns on the ground, next to the corpses of the killed terrorists, seem more common Russian Kalashnikovs rather than Western assault rifles.