Telegram to block channels that call for violence after anti-Israel riot in Russia

Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Monday that his instant messaging service will block channels that call for violence, seemingly employing the punitive measure against an account Russian officials blame for inciting an anti-Israel riot at an international airport over the weekend.

Anti-Israel protesters stormed an airport terminal and then runway Sunday in Makhachkala, the capital of Russia's Muslim-majority Dagestan Region that borders the Caspian Sea to the east and Azerbaijan to the south. At least 60 people were arrested and nine police officers injured.

UPI has contacted Telegram for confirmation and comment, but the channel in question appears to be Morning of Dagestan and is no longer accessible via the messaging application.

Durov, a Russian dissident who left his native country in 2014 and now lives in Dubai, said in a brief statement on his personal channel that those "calling for violence ... will be blocked for violating the rules of Telegram, Google, Apple and the entire civilized world."

Attached to the statement was two screen shots taken from the Morning of Dagestan account, calling on its nearly 66,000 followers to take action against passengers on a flight from Israel that was landing in Dagestan.

Posts on the channel included the flight's status and called on Muslims to converge on the airport to coerce passengers to condemn their government, NBC News reported.

On Monday in a meeting with his Security Council, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed not only social media by Ukraine for inspiring the anti-Israel airport riot without stating either Telegram or the Morning of Dagestan by name.

"Yesterday's developments in Makhachkala were instigated in particular via social networks, not least from Ukraine's territory, by agents of Western special services," he said, according to a transcription of the meeting released by Putin's office.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova further claimed the attack was an "external provocation" planned to undermine Russian society.

"In the implementation of the next destructive action, a direct and key role was assigned to the criminal Kyiv regimen, which in turn acted through the hands of notorious Russophobes who settled there" she told reporters during a press conference, though neither her nor Putin provided proof for their claims.

Oleh Nikolenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's ministry of foreign affairs, rejected the accusations that Kyiv was involved, stating on Facebook that the riot reflects "the deep-rooted antisemitism of Russian elites and society."

"Threats to deal with Jews are the result of the work of Russian state propaganda, which for decades cultivated among Russians a sense of hatred towards other peoples," he said in a statement.

"The accusations of the ministry of foreign affairs of Ukraine in connection with the events of Dagestan is an attempt to transfer responsibility from a sick head to a healthy one."

The riot came amid Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which has sparked both anger and acts of violence around the world directed at Jews and Palestinians.