Dagestani man accused of stoking anti-Semitic pogrom at Russian airport found murdered in Istanbul

A man from Dagestan who ran a Telegram channel that was instrumental in fomenting an anti-Jewish pogrom at an airport in the North Caucasus republic in October 2023, has been found dead in Istanbul, news outlet Caucasian Knot reported on Saturday.

Abakar Abakarov, who was found dead on Friday from multiple stab wounds, had previously received death threats, one member of the Dagestani diaspora in Türkiye told Caucasian Knot. The Turkish authorities have launched an investigation, though no official comment has yet been made, according to the publication. 

Abakarov ran the anti-Russian, Islamist Utro Dagestan channel, which called for mass riots at Dagestan’s Makhachkala Airport in October 2023 after rumours spread that Israelis were on an inbound flight at a time of heightened tensions following the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel and its subsequent response. 

Independent Telegram news channel SOTA said the channel, which advocated for an end to Moscow’s rule in the republic of Dagestan and elsewhere in the North Caucasus, was originally set up by Ilya Ponomaryov, a former member of Russia’s State Duma who is widely understood to be the political head of the Freedom of Russia Legion, which fights Russian forces alongside the Armed Forces of Ukraine.  

Ponomaryov, however, was quick to say that he had cut ties with the channel long before the disorder at the airport. Utro Dagestan was eventually blocked by Telegram founder Pavel Durov. 

Russian investigators named Abakarov as one of three people who had provoked the airport riots, alongside Ponomaryov and preacher Israil Akhmednabiev, according to Caucasian Knot. The cases of all three men reached Dagestan’s Supreme Court in July, though none was still in Russia. Abakarov was placed on the wanted list in Russia in November 2023.