A Russian court today (Wednesday) handed down heavy prison sentences to nine defendants accused of involvement in the attempted lynching of Jews at the Dagestan airport shortly after the outbreak of the war.
The nine were convicted of violating safety rules at transportation facilities and participating in mass riots. The court sentenced the nine to prison sentences ranging from eight to nine years in effect. The sentence comes four months after five other suspects were convicted.
Footage from the incident in October 2023 showed crowds chanting "Allahu Akbar," and according to reports, they also chanted antisemitic chants. The rioters waited for an Israeli flight that was supposed to arrive and checked vehicles leaving the airport to try and find Israeli or Jewish passengers to attack.
The flight, which took off from Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel and was scheduled to land in Makhachkala, was rerouted and landed at a different airport.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to the anti-Jewish Russia in a post on X, stating, "Appalling videos from Makhachkala, Russia, where an angry mob broke into the airport searching for Israeli citizens on the flight from Tel-Aviv. This is not an isolated incident in Makhachkala but rather part of Russia’s widespread culture of hatred toward other nations, which is propagated by state television, pundits, and authorities. The Russian foreign minister has made a series of antisemitic remarks in the last year. The Russian President also used antisemitic slurs. For Russian propaganda talking heads on official television, hate rhetoric is routine. Even the most recent Middle East escalation prompted antisemitic statements from Russian ideologists. Russian antisemitism and hatred toward other nations are systemic and deeply rooted. Hatred is what drives aggression and terror. We must all work together to oppose hatred."