A local official in Russia’s Dagestan region was sacked on Monday after two of his sons were reported to be among the gunmen who attacked religious sites there on Sunday.
Regional Governor Sergei Melikov told journalists that the head of Dagestan’s Sergokala district, Magomed Omarov, had been removed from his post, without giving details on his connection to Sunday’s attacks.
Omarov’s dismissal came as the death toll from the assaults climbed to at least 20 in what Melikov called “terrorist аcts” and a “tragedy for Dagestan and the whole country.”
Police raided Omarov’s home on Sunday evening and took him in for questioning as media reported that two of his sons had been among the gunmen. Omarov also was expelled from the regional chapter of ruling United Russia party, while his profile was deleted from the official website.
Sunday’s attacks targeted two synagogues and two Orthodox churches as well as a police checkpoint in the regional capital Makhachkala and the city of Derbent, a UNESCO World Heritage site on the Caspian Sea.
Among the victims was a 66-year-old Russian Orthodox priest whose throat was slit, according to a local official. The regional Health Ministry also reported that at least 46 people were taken to hospital with injuries.
Three days of mourning have been declared in Dagestan, with large events and television programs canceled across the North Caucasus region.
Sunday’s assault was the second mass shooting in Russia this year, after gunmen in March opened fire on a large crowd in the Crocus City Hall music venue in Moscow. That massacre, which killed 145 people, was claimed by Islamic State.
From exile, Kremlin critics blamed Russia’s security services for being distracted by President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the political persecution of his enemies instead of thwarting real threats at home.
Russian officials and media, however, used the Crocus attack to serve their own ends, claiming to have found evidence of a “Ukrainian trace.” Ever since Moscow launched its full-scale assault on Ukraine in February 2022, Russian officials and state media have referred to Ukrainians as “terrorists.”
Еarly signs suggest a similar smokescreen might be fabricated this time as well.
Late on Sunday, State Duma Deputy Abdulkhakim Gadzhiyev claimed that Ukraine and unspecified NATO countries “were no doubt behind the attacks” in an effort to “destabilize our country from within” due to what he described as Russia’s success on the battlefield.
In his Monday post, Melikov appeared to convey a similar message, saying: “We understand who is behind the organization of the terrorist attacks and what goal they pursued.”
“The war has come to our homes,” he added.
But some independent analysts suggested the Crocus and Dagestani shootings could presage a descent into the sort of violence common in Russia in the 1990s and 2000s.
“In [events] in the Caucasus, we see another instance of the Russian regime’s loss of control in various places, which come as a surprise to the regime itself,” Alexander Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and a former Russian diplomat, wrote in a post on Telegram.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the idea that Russia risks sliding into instability.
“Today’s Russia is different, society is consolidated, the sort of terrorist manifestations we saw in Dagestan are not supported by society, not in Russia nor in Dagestan,” Peskov told journalists on Monday.
While saying it was too early to draw conclusions on who was behind the Dagestani shootings, Peskov bought up a Sunday attack on Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia. Four people died and more than 150 people were injured there after fragments, likely from a U.S.-supplied missile, fell on beachgoers in the city of Sevastopol, Russian media reported.
“We understand perfectly who is behind it,” Peskov said, telling reporters to ask Europe and the United States why they were “killing Russian children.”
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