Russian court sentences former lawmaker to 19 years in prison over antisemitic pogrom at airport
Dagestan’s Supreme Court has sentenced former State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev in absentia to 19 years in prison in connection with the antisemitic pogrom at Makhachkala’s airport in October 2023.
Two other men were also tried in absentia on charges of organizing the pogrom, court records show: Islamic preacher Israil Akhmednabyev, known as Abu Umar Sasitlinsky, and Abakar Abakarov, whom Russian authorities consider the administrator of the Telegram channel Utro Dagestan. They received sentences of 16 and 15 years, respectively, the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona reported.
All three men remain on international wanted lists, the press service of Dagestan’s regional court system said. Russian media had previously reported that Abakarov was killed in Turkey in 2025.
Ponomarev received the longest sentence of the three, a court representative told the Russian state news agency TASS.
The riots at Makhachkala’s airport broke out on the evening of October 29, 2023, when hundreds of Dagestani residents surrounded a plane that had arrived from Tel Aviv in search of “refugees from Israel.” Russian investigators believe the pogrom was incited by false information published on the Telegram channel Utro Dagestan. During the unrest, 23 police officers were injured and dozens of participants were detained. Passengers on the Tel Aviv flight were evacuated from the airport by military helicopters.
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