The events in Dagestan are a natural result of militaristic propaganda, «propaganda Z», adopted by the Russian authorities. Propaganda is a powerful weapon in Russia’s war against the West.
The potential of Russian propaganda was used in the war against Ukraine. Now it is beginning to be used to radicalize the Islamic world.
It is obvious that Russian propaganda, especially oriented towards the countries of the «Global South» and the same West (for example, migrant communities in Europe) will increasingly acquire radical extremist features.
One can safely predict that Russia’s migrant sympathizers and numerous Russian representatives/organizations will broadcast explicitly and implicitly anti-Western messages, fuel numerous «traditional grievances» — colonialism, «ethnic cleansing» and territorial claims — and manipulate historical vulnerabilities and painful moments.
Anti-Semitism in this context is a tried-and-tested ideological «trick» that has consistently yielded extremely radical negative results throughout history but is widely used by Russia, first by the Tsarist and Soviet governments and now by Putin.
Russian propaganda begins to play not only on the economic or military interests of the West, it begins to undermine the very foundations of Western civilization and Western mentality. By transforming the North-South confrontation into a format of religiously and xenophobically colored wars, Russia is trying to play out «tough» scenarios of confrontation, which, as history shows, can last for centuries and cost hundreds of thousands of lives.