A 16-year-old Russian man was shot dead early on Friday morning in the Republic of Tatarstan, after he’d thrown Molotov cocktails and attacked a law enforcement officer with a knife. Police are treating it as an act of terrorism.
According to reports, not long after midnight, a local police officer noticed that the Kukmor district police station in Tatarstan was on fire. While extinguishing the blaze, another Molotov cocktail came over the station’s fence. The officer, along with a colleague, then chased the culprit as he attempted to flee. After the officers caught up with him, the 16-year-old pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the policemen multiple times. In response, and after some warning shots, his colleague shot the man dead.
The attack left one of the policemen hospitalized, though his injuries are said not to be life-threatening.
Although not stated officially by law enforcement agencies, multiple Russian media outlets are reporting, citing unnamed sources, that the teenager had shouted, “God save me, you’re all infidels, Allahu Akbar!” Baza, an anonymous but influential Russian Telegram channel, has named the culprit as 16-year-old Vitaly Antipov.
Located 700km east of Moscow, Tatarstan is home to one of Russia’s most important Muslim communities, with more Muslims than Orthodox Christians. The country’s best-known mosque, the Kul Sharif Mosque, is located in the regional capital, Kazan. Speaking to Russian news agency Interfax, the local spiritual administration noted that the deceased had not been attending mosques in the Kukmor district.
According to another Telegram channel, Mash, Antipov had recently created social media pages under a new name: ‘Abdurakhman.’
In response to the attack, well-known far-right Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky told radio station ‘Ekho Moskvy’ that the authorities should check all religious educational institutions for the presence of extremist literature in connection with the attack.
“Everything is beautiful – education and school, but there is a little bit of poison: anti-Russian and anti-Orthodox sentiments,” Zhirinovsky said. “And then we get extremists, fanatics, and radicals.”
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