Unknown assailants launched attacks on Orthodox churches and synagogues in Russia’s majority Muslim republic of Dagestan on Sunday evening, resulting in the deaths of at least eight police and National Guard officers, as well as a priest, officials reported.
The attacks took place simultaneously in Makhachkala, Dagestan’s largest city, and the coastal city of Derbent.
Dagestan’s leader, Sergei Melikov, addressed the incidents on Telegram, stating, “This evening in Derbent and Makhachkala, unknown attackers attempted to destabilize society.” He later implied a connection to the war in Ukraine, stating, “We know who is behind these terrorist attacks and their objectives. War has reached our homes.”
Melikov emphasized the need to find “all members of these sleeper cells, both locally and abroad,” who were involved in the attacks.
The Dagestan Interior Ministry reported that police killed four gunmen in Makhachkala and two in Derbent. In Derbent, assailants attacked a synagogue and a church with automatic rifles around 6:00 p.m. local time before fleeing. The synagogue caught fire shortly after the attack, as shown in online videos.
Nikolai Kotelnikov, a 66-year-old priest at the Orthodox church in Derbent, was fatally stabbed, according to Shamil Khadulaev, chairman of Dagestan’s Public Monitoring Commission. A security guard at the Orthodox church in Makhachkala was also killed, and 19 people took shelter inside the church before being led to safety.
The synagogue in Makhachkala was set on fire and burned down, said Boruch Gorin, chairman of the public council of Russia’s Federation of Jewish Communities.
Additionally, unknown assailants attacked a traffic police post in Makhachkala, killing one officer and injuring six others in the ensuing standoff, the region’s Interior Ministry reported.
In a separate incident, attackers fired on a police car in Sergokal, about 65 kilometers from Makhachkala, wounding at least one officer, according to a statement from the Dagestan Interior Ministry’s spokeswoman.
Following these events, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee imposed a counterterrorism regime in Dagestan, closing roads leading into and out of Derbent and Makhachkala. The operation was concluded on Monday morning after the threats were neutralized.
Magomed Omarov, head of Dagestan’s Sergokalinsky district and whose sons were allegedly involved in the attacks, was detained, as reported by state media.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened criminal probes over the “acts of terror” in Dagestan. According to TASS, a law enforcement source indicated that the gunmen were supporters of an international terrorist organization, though the specific group was not named.
In April, Russia’s FSB security service arrested four people in Dagestan for allegedly plotting a shooting at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall concert venue in March, an attack claimed by Islamic State.
Militants from Dagestan have previously joined the Islamic State group in Syria, and in 2015, the group announced a “franchise” in the North Caucasus.
Dagestan, situated east of Chechnya, has experienced ongoing conflict with Islamist militants following two brutal wars between Russian authorities and Chechen separatists in the 1990s and early 2000s. This simmering conflict has claimed the lives of numerous civilians and police officers.
