Attack on police inspectors in Makhachkala recognized as terrorist attack

The participants in the attack in Makhachkala had been planning the terrorist attack for about six months, the law enforcement bodies have concluded. The leader of Dagestan has promised to nominate the police inspectors for awards.

On May 13, the Investigating Department for Dagestan of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) recognized the attack on law enforcers in Makhachkala as a terrorist act, and a criminal case was instituted under the appropriate articles.

According to the ICRF’s information, two residents of Dagestan had planned in advance the attack on law enforcers, which took place on May 5. To plan the attack, they “created a terrorist community no later than December 2024.” The investigators came to such conclusion after studying the materials of the Dagestani FSB department and the Centre to Combat Extremism (CCE, also known as Centre “E”), the ICRF’s official Telegram channel reported.

The criminal cases instituted earlier in connection with the incident have been combined into one proceeding with a new criminal case on a terrorist attack and the creation of a terrorist community (Part 3 of Article 205 and Part 1 of Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

On May 13, at a meeting with his subordinates, Sergey Melikov, the leader of Dagestan, announced that the police inspectors who “fended off the attack on May 5” would be nominated for state awards, the press service for the Dagestani leader’s administration reported. Sergey Melikov also announced that the families of each deceased police inspector would be paid 1 million roubles, and the injured police inspectors would be paid up to 500,000 roubles, depending on the severity of their injuries.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 14, 2025 at 03:14 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.