Attacks on Church and Police Posts in Russia’s Dagestan Leaves 19 Dead

Attacks that targeted a synagogue, an Orthodox church and police checkpoints in Russia’s Dagestan Republic have claimed 19 lives.

A priest, three other civilians, and 15 police officers were killed in the attacks which took place in two places: Dagestan’s largest city and capital, Makhachkala, and in the coastal city of Derbent.

Investigators said Monday that the yet-to-be-ascertained gunmen carried out the coordinated attacks on the night of Sunday, June 23.

“According to preliminary data, 15 law enforcement officers were killed, as well as four civilians, including an Orthodox priest,” Russia’s National Investigative Committee said in a statement.

The statement added that five perpetrators were also killed by security operatives who responded to the attacks, but it did not say if the five were the only suspects or if some escaped.

The spokeswoman for Dagestan’s interior ministry, Gayana Gariyeva, has been quoted to have identified the deceased priest as a 66-year-old Russian Orthodox priest.

The priest, Father Nikolai Kotelnikov, is said to have served in Derbent for more than 40 years.

Commenting, Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee said the attacks, in the predominantly Muslim region with a history of armed militancy, are terrorist acts.

Both the church and the synagogue caught fire as a result of the attacks, according to a state media report.

There was yet to be any claim of responsibility up to the time of filing this story but it has been noted that the bloody attacks came three months after an attack which ended the life of 145 people in a concert hall outside Moscow was claimed by ISIS.

Beyond the historical connection, a widely shared opinion in the region blames the Sunday attacks on Ukraine and the US-led NATO alliance.

“What happened looks like a vile provocation and an attempt to cause discord,” President Ramzan Kadyrov of neighbouring Chechnya said.

The Chechnya president is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We understand who is behind the organization of these terrorist attacks. We understand what the organisers were trying to achieve,” declared Dagestan Governor Sergei Melikov in a video statement released Monday.

Dismissing the charge against Ukraine and NATO, a leading Russian nationalist in occupied Ukraine, Dmitry Rogozin, warned that if every attack was blamed on “the machinations of Ukraine and NATO, this pink mist will lead us to big problems”.

Dagestan, mainly a Muslim region in southern Russia, is home to an ancient Jewish community in the South Caucasus.

Officially the Republic of Dagestan, Dagestan is a republic of Russia situated in the southernmost tip of Russia, sharing land borders with the Russian republics of Chechnya and Kalmykia to the west and north.