Militant attack in Dagestan highlights earlier flaws in authorities’ tactics
The attack in Makhachkala and other recent armed incidents in Dagestan are only indirectly related, although they stem from common premises that authorities have failed to eliminate over the years of fighting the underground – social injustice and legal problems.
The attack motives are still unclear.
The armed incidents that have occurred in Dagestan since the start of the year don’t yet allow stating that some kind of systemic underground movement is being revived in the republic, believes a journalist from a Makhachkala outlet, who preferred to stay anonymous.
"The attackers’ motives are unknown; and there’s no information that they had sworn allegiance to any movement or that they had themselves held extreme views," he has emphasized.
Milrad Fatullaev, a journalist, also doubts that the attacks could indicate some kind of revival of a unified armed underground. "I think that to some extent this underground continued to exist; it was not completely eradicated. It is no secret that some part thereof was ready and could, under certain conditions, take up arms. If we talk about whether these crimes are interconnected, I think not. Even if they have common curators, they are external; and they led these people separately. These were underground sleeper cells that woke up on a certain signal or instruction from their curators," he said.
The journalist agrees that a terror act was committed in Derbent. "What happened in Derbent, where a policeman also tried to stop a car and the driver opened fire, I’m sure that this was a terror act. The weapons they had were not intended to resolve any criminal issues. They were driving with some other political goals and objectives," Mr Fatullaev believes.
Lawyer urged to keep militants alive.
In order to save policemen’s lives in the future, Dagestani authorities should move away from the usual antiterrorist methods and "try as much as possible to keep attackers alive," Arsen Magomedov, a lawyer and public figure, believes.
"The liquidation (neutralization) of them hides many secrets that could help the society better understand this problem and take measures to resolve it. After all, without understanding the criminals’ motives, the details of their preparation and other aspects, it’s impossible to efficiently defend ourselves in the future," Mr Magomedov wrote in his Telegram channel, noting that there is experience of such actions in foreign practice.
Social tension remains a prerequisite for extremism.
Shamil Khadulaev, a member of the Dagestani Public Oversight Commission (POC), believes that there is an indirect connection of the attack committed on May 5 this year and the terror act committed in the summer of 2024, when militants attacked policemen in Makhachkala in almost the same place.
"After the last year's terror act, I knew that we’d have more emergencies. Watching what was happening and understanding the trend of where we were going, this was to be expected. Wherever you go, there is one continuous problem: corruption, problems with human rights, the gap between the poor majority and the rich, and other problems," Mr Khadulaev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
In order to prevent such terror acts, it’s important to work in this direction among young people." In Khadulaev’s opinion, the "airport case" also played a significant role in increasing public discontent. "We see how the trials are going, where all the indictments are carbon copies and everyone receives roughly same sentences, 8-10 years of freedom deprivation. Even for a murder they don't award that much," he said.
The POC member has also noted that there is a lack of explanatory work in Dagestan. "Unfortunately, they are fond of showing off. On the one hand, there’s anger on the part of the society because of social injustice. On the other hand, people still need to be explained, to go out into the society and say (about the real state of affairs), so that people understand and accept it. We have nothing of that at all,” Mr Khadulaev believes.
The recent armed incidents in Dagestan should be viewed through the prism of external forces intervening to undermine public safety in the republic, but they can no longer be attributed to the actions of the previously existing armed underground, which was called the “Islamist” one, said Amir Kolov, a retired police colonel.
He has noted that only those involved in the attack could reliably clarify the motives, but he finds it possible to link such incidents with pro-Israeli external forces. “Given the current socio-political situation in Dagestan – the heightened protest sentiments against Israel’s policy towards Muslims and awarding unfairly harsh sentences to the participants in the airport events – all what remains is to increase pressure on independent public forces, which is what the organizers of such terrorist-like actions are trying to achieve. The enemies of our country are organizing such terrorist-like actions in order to create obstacles to the development of tourism in Dagestan and prevent local residents from improving their life quality,” Mr Kolov told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 6, 2025 at 08:13 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.