October 7 & today · Russia · 2023–present
Imperial exclusion and Soviet anti-Zionist conspiracy returned through state propaganda and the hunt for Jews in Dagestan.
Explore RussiaPublished by WTJPublication updated
2023–present
October 7 & today · October 7 & today
Imperial exclusion and Soviet anti-Zionist conspiracy returned through state propaganda and the hunt for Jews in Dagestan.
The arrivals hall becomes a hunting ground
In late October 2023, rumours spread that Israelis were arriving in Dagestan. Mobs searched hotels, and a crowd stormed Makhachkala airport, looking for Jewish passengers and checking identities. A journey that should have ended at arrivals became a threat to people singled out as Jews.
Human Rights Watch also documented an attack on a Jewish community-centre construction site. The violence moved between travellers and local Jewish life. Being described as Israeli was only the beginning; the search was for Jewish identity itself.
The state’s old enemy acquires a new name
Imperial Russia confined Jews through law. Stalin’s campaigns later portrayed them as rootless conspirators with foreign loyalties. Soviet anti-Zionism helped turn that older outsider accusation into an apparently political judgment. Researchers trace its survival in present-day state rhetoric, including the use of Zelenskyy’s Jewish ancestry to stigmatize Ukraine.
After October 7, agitation in the North Caucasus moved from hostility to arriving Israelis into a search for Jews themselves. Likhachev argues that official incitement and solidarity rhetoric encouraged a sense that such hostility was tolerated. The airport mob was not shown to be carrying out a Kremlin order. But nationalist propaganda, inherited Soviet conspiracy and local mobilization could strengthen the same accusation: a Jew was an enemy whose identity justified exclusion, even when the language began with Israel.
Protection fails when it is needed
Human Rights Watch found that police allowed hotel inspections for Jews and initially failed to stop passport checks during the Dagestan violence. The people under threat could not rely on the authorities to draw a firm boundary around their safety.
That failure gave the mob’s accusation practical force. It was no longer only a rumour repeated in public: strangers could demand proof of identity and decide who might pass. For Jews caught in that moment, belonging depended on protection that should never have been made conditional.