Putin too "busy" crushing dissent to deal with terrorism: Exiled top rabbi (2024)

Attacks on synagogues and churches in Russia's southern republic of Dagestan showed that President Vladimir Putin's emphasis on quashing dissent was leaving the country vulnerable to terror attacks, exiled Chief Rabbi of Moscow Pinchas Goldschmidt told Newsweek.

Wednesday saw the third day of mourning in the predominantly Muslim Caucasus republic where Sunday's attacks on two synagogues, two Eastern Orthodox churches and a traffic police post left at least 26 people dead, an Orthodox priest among them, according to local authorities.

The Washington, D.C.-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Wilayat Kavkaz, the Islamic State's Northern Caucasus branch, was likely responsible as concerns grow that Russia is facing a renewed militant Islamist threat that Putin cannot control. In March, at least 144 people were killed at the Crocus concert hall near Moscow in a terrorist operation claimed by ISIS-K.

"Unfortunately, the law enforcement authorities, the FSB, the interior ministry are busy a) with Ukraine, b) with controlling the population inside Russia," said Goldschmidt, who was chief rabbi of Moscow between 1993 until 2022, when he left following Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

"By crushing dissent, opposition leaders," he told Newsweek, "they're not really focusing on the real threat coming from real terrorist groups like ISIS." He said that assuming the ISIS connection, "we think that this attack has multiple purposes.

"It was also an attack which on one hand tried to deepen the divide between the Muslim majority in Dagestan against minority populations," he said, which included Jews. "It was also aimed against the regime, against the Kremlin."

The ISW said Wednesday that the Kremlin is trying to give the impression of stability and normalcy following the attacks but was "so far failing to reassure the public" that further attacks would not take place.

The think tank said the attacks in the coastal city of Derbent and regional capital Makhachkala have stoked fears about instability in the North Caucasus.

It noted how Russian sources, including pro-Kremlin milbloggers and Russian opposition media, amplified reports of two armed men firing on police in Makhachkala on Tuesday night that many Russian sources later reported as fake.

Like the attacks in Moscow in March, Russian officials were quick to link the Dagestan attacks to Ukraine or the West, which Goldschmidt said was a "continuation of the fake news" agenda pushed by the Kremlin "that Ukraine is run by Nazis—and of course, Nazis attack synagogues."

The Kremlin said Putin expressed condolences over Sunday's incidents, but as of Thursday, he had not commented on who was to blame or why authorities failed to stop them, unlike after the attacks in March when he made an address.

Markus Korhonen, senior associate, S-RM, a geopolitical and cyber risk consultancy said Putin's silence could be calculated.

"Dagestani officials have already linked Ukraine and NATO to the attack," he told Newsweek. "The Kremlin may have decided that it better serves the interests of the overall narrative of the war if these types of messages come from a wider variety of sources."

Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin for comment.

Russian media later reported that five of the perpetrators were identified by authorities, including one son and two nephews of Magomed Omarov, the head of Dagestan's Sergokalinsky District.

Goldschmidt is president of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) and his opposition to Putin's war led to him being declared a foreign agent by the Russian Justice Ministry. He has advised Jews to leave Russia because the climate toward them in Russia has worsened because of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Putin has made slurs against the Jewish heritage of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Soon after the start of Gaza war on October 7, rioters rampaged through Makhachkala airport in Dagestan's capital in search of passengers on a flight arriving from Tel Aviv.

"I think over 100,000 people of Jewish descent have listened to my call and left the country since February 2022," Goldschmidt said. He said that the fate of Jews in Russia is "precarious," and he feared the country "is going back to the Soviet model, where it is going to be impossible to leave.

"The regime is becoming more heavy-handed by the day," he added.