(Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with top government officials to address antisemitic protests in a predominantly Muslim region of the country, demonstrations he blamed on Ukraine and Western interference.

“Events in Makhachkala are inspired, among other things, through social networks, from Ukraine’s territory, by Western intelligence services,” Putin said in a speech broadcast by the state-run Rossiya 24 television channel. 

Cabinet members, including Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, security council members and the heads of law enforcement agencies were among those who attended the gathering in Moscow on Monday. Apart from the protests in Russia’s Dagestan region, the officials planned to discuss the situation in the Middle East and military activity in Ukraine, according to Putin.

The meeting is taking place after a Russian airport in Makhachkala, the capital city of the Dagestan region, was temporarily shut down on Sunday when a mob forced its way onto the tarmac where, according to reports and images on social media, a plane from Israel had landed.

It took hours to restore order and clear the premises, Russia’s federal aviation agency Rosaviatsia said. The agency said the airport resumed operations as of 2 p.m. Moscow time on Monday, but that flights from Tel Aviv would be temporarily re-routed to other cities. Rosaviatsia earlier said the regional hub would resume working on Oct. 31.

Israel’s government said in a statement it expected Russian authorities “to protect the safety of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they may be and to act resolutely against the rioters and against the wild incitement directed against Jews and Israelis.” 

Tensions between Israel and Russia have been growing since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. Israel lodged an official complaint to Russia after a Hamas delegation visited Moscow last week. Russia’s ambassador to Israel was summoned Sunday to the foreign ministry in Jerusalem and reprimanded over Moscow’s failure to condemn the militant group, designated a terrorist outfit by the US and the European Union. 

According to unverified videos on social media, a crowd of people carrying the Palestinian flag forced their way onto a runway at the airport where a Red Wings plane from Tel Aviv was arriving, with one person climbing onto the engine and then onto the wing of the jet. Some people were hurt and sought medical help, the local health ministry said, without giving further details.

The scene unfolded less than 48 hours after Israeli troops and tanks entered the Gaza Strip in what is expected to be a protracted war against Hamas. The deadly incursion into Israel on Oct. 7 by the militant group killed 1,400 people and set off a retaliation that has raised tensions across the Middle East. Officials in Gaza say more than 7,700 people have died so far in Israel’s aerial and ground attacks.

Read more: Israel Latest: Netanyahu Defies Calls to Quit, UN Warns on Syria

The head of the Dagestan region, Sergey Melikov, denounced the airport attack and promised an “appropriate assessment from law enforcement.” The local prosecutor’s office opened a criminal investigation. Police detained 83 people, Interfax reported.

The incident follows protests in Russia’s largely Muslim North Caucasus region against Israel’s actions in Gaza. In the city of Khasavyurt, Dagestan, people gathered near a hotel demanding to expel Israeli residents while minor protests were held in Makhachkala. In Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, unidentified people set fire to the construction site of a Jewish cultural center on Sunday, according to RIA Novosti.

Putin met with representatives of the country’s biggest religious groups last week, blaming the West for causing the conflict in the Middle East, calling interfaith strife “anti-Russian” and claiming: “We have not seen antisemitism on a state level for many years and there is hardly any antisemitism on the streets either.”

While the heads of Dagestan and other neighboring regions condemned anti-Israel acts in their territories, they called the unrest provocations. Melikov blamed “extremists” led by “enemies of Russia” and even went so far as to say he thought it was an operation run from Ukraine, according to RIA Novosti. 

“It is well known and obvious that yesterday’s events around the Makhachkala airport are largely the result of outside interference, including external informational influence,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier on Monday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose country was invaded by Russia in February 2022, was quick to denounce “appalling videos from Makhachkala, Russia, where an angry mob broke into the airport searching for Israeli citizens on the flight from Tel Aviv.”

--With assistance from Galit Altstein.

(Updates from the first paragraph with comments from Putin at meeting.)

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.