Dagestani rioters are tried only on administrative articles

In Dagestan, at least 336 protocols were drawn up against the participants of the anti-Semitic riots at the international airport of Makhachkala, and all of them – for minor administrative articles.

The vast majority of protocols, 302, were drawn up under the article about violation of the rules of holding rallies, only a few people were accused of disobeying the police and petty hooliganism.

On October 29, several hundred people seized the Makhachkala airport, trying to find Jews among the passengers of a transit flight from Tel Aviv. Against the backdrop of Israel’s actions in Gaza, those gathered demanded the expulsion of Jews from Dagestan. The police only tried to calm the crowd, saying that they “understand” the state of the people and that those gathered “are not strangers” to them.

After the people broke through to the airfield, the Russian Guard soldiers entered the airport, the damage to which, according to official data, was estimated at hundreds of millions of rubles. As a result of the riots, several policemen were seriously injured. However, not a single case under the criminal article of participation in mass riots accompanied by violence has yet been opened.

The head of Dagestan, Sergey Melikov, first stated that “no one will be forgiven” from the participants in the riots, but after calling for leniency towards the rioters, he softened his rhetoric and declared: “What happened, happened.”