Synagogue, Church Attacks in Russia's Dagestan Leave 20 Dead

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Facts

• Russian officials said Monday that the death toll from apparently coordinated attacks on synagogues and Orthodox churches the previous evening in the Muslim-majority Dagestan region rose to 20.¹
• Those killed in the assaults in the cities of Makhachkala and Derbent included 15 police officers and Orthodox priest Father Nikolai Kotelnikov, with at least 46 others injured.²
• Russia's Investigative Committee further announced that individuals involved in the attacks had their identities confirmed and were killed during counterterrorism operations.³
• According to the state-run TASS news agency, local official Magomed Omarov has been detained over the alleged role of his sons in the attacks. The search for accomplices and sleeper cells is underway.⁴
• This is the worst episode of alleged Islamist violence in Russia since militants killed 145 people and injured 180 others at a concert hall in Moscow three months ago, for which the Afghan offshoot of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.⁵
• Last October, an angry mob stormed an airport in Makhachkala over the landing of a flight from Israel, with at least 60 arrested for breaking through security to the runway shouting antisemitic slogans.⁶

Sources: ¹New York Times, ²BBC News, ³RT, ⁴TASS, ⁵Financial Times and ⁶Al Jazeera.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by UKRINFORM. As Moscow puts all its resources toward invading Ukraine, it's left its domestic security at risk. While the Kremlin may try to blame this attack on Ukraine, all it's really doing is exposing its fracturing society and the limits to its governing power. Russia should prioritize the safety of its people instead of invading foreign countries.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by X.com. It wouldn't be surprising if US and NATO-backed forces had a small degree of separation from these attacks in Dagestan. Dating back to the Chechen wars, agencies like the CIA have sought to divide the Muslim and non-Muslim sections of Russia to destabilize the country. This attack could be a revival of that decades-old tactic.

Predictions