Russia on Monday blamed “external interference” for an anti-Israel riot that closed an airport in the Muslim-majority region of Dagestan the previous day. “Yesterday’s events at Makhachkala airport are, to a large extent, the result of external interference,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. President Vladimir Putin was due to hold a meeting with his top advisers, including the defence minister and spy chiefs, later on Monday to discuss “the West’s attempts to use the events in the Middle East to split Russian society,” Peskov added.