MAGAS, March 7. /TASS/. The mass riots that took place in October 2023 at the Makhachkala airport in the far southern Russian Republic of Dagestan and led to a disruption of airport operations were a vivid example of the West's attempts to sway the situation in the North Caucasus, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said.

"Western attempts to destabilize the situation in the North Caucasus continue. The events of last October in Dagestan, when mass riots occurred as a result of provocations and Internet incitement coming from abroad, which led to the disruption of airport operations, are a vivid example of it. The situation was stabilized thanks to prompt actions by law enforcement agencies and authorities," Patrushev said in Magas, capital of the North Caucasus Russian Republic of Ingushetia, at a meeting on national security issues in the regions of the North Caucasus Federal District.

He also cited a very recent case as an example. "In the Ingush town of Karabulak, a group of six militants, adherents of the ideology of the banned international terrorist organization ISIS (former name of the Islamic State, or IS, which is banned in Russia - TASS) and involved in committing terrorist crimes, was eliminated," Patrushev noted.

He recalled Russian President Vladimir Putin's earlier words that "any interference from outside, provocations to cause interethnic or interreligious conflicts" are regarded as aggressive actions against Russia and as an attempt to "throw terrorism and extremism back at Russia" as a tool to fight it. "And we will respond appropriately," Patrushev concluded.