The operation under investigation for instigating anti-Jewish riots on Oct. 29 in Dagestan, in southern Russia, is a Ukrainian Telegram channel “Utro Dagestan” (“Morning Dagestan”). Part of the investigation by Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs involves searching the mobile phones of some of the 83 people arrested, to pin down whether Utro Dagestan was the source of the rumor that “Israeli refugees” were flying into the Muslim-majority Dagestan on Oct. 29, with the implication that they were settlers, ready to seize land from Muslims. The anti-Jewish rioters surrounded a plane at the Makhachkala Airport in the capital of Dagestan for several hours. In clashes with police, over 20 people were injured, including 9 officers.
A previous investigation, by both Russian authorities and Killnet hacker community members, of Utro Dagestan’s role in last year’s disturbances in Dagestan, informs the present investigation, according to RT. First, the notorious Ilya Ponomarev, an open promoter from Kiev of exploiting ethnicities in Russia to split apart the country, stated in May 2023 that he was Utro Dagestan’s “investor” and, as late as August 2023, spoke of Utro Dagestan as being “ours.” His team now dissembles on such claims, saying that Ponomarev doesn’t even read “Morning Dagestan.”
While Ponomarev makes loud claims—he’s also claimed that his operations in Kiev are behind the bombings, sabotage and assassinations inside Russia—it is not to be disputed that he, minimally, promulgates and agitates for such activities.
In 2002, Russian authorities analyzed Utro Dagestan’s financial transactions and the circulation of disinformation, and their results were augmented by details from Killnet hacker community members. Utro Dagestan had over 5 billion rubles (around $77.2 million) pumped into it, beginning in the first weeks after the Feb. 24, 2022 Russian special military operation—an extraordinarily large amount for a social media community.
The head of Dagestan Sergey Melnikov has said: “We are quite certain that the channels which rallied people to disturb the public order in the region are under the control of the Center for Ideological and Psychological Operations of the Central Intelligence Office of the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine.” Its first major psychological warfare operation was found to be on Sept. 21, 2022, immediately after President Vladimir Putin and the Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu had addressed the nation on a partial military mobilization. Utro Dagestan put out disinformation claiming that 13,000 Dagestanis were to be drafted. That triggered social dissent ("too many of us have been drafted already!"), seemingly coordinated with messages from Zelenskyy to Dagestanis who, as he put it, “were beginning to understand” the situation. They should “disobey this criminal mobilization. Run away. Or surrender to Ukrainian forces the moment you have a chance. I’m asking all our friends in the media sphere to help disseminate this appeal.”
RT notes that the factors in Dagestan of poverty, a radical break between rich and poor, and the control by extended families and clans, contribute to instability and a distrust of authority. They add that Western agencies have targeted Dagestan as low hanging fruit for destabilization efforts.
