ISTANBUL

Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Monday said there is "no justification" for dreadful events in Gaza, where thousands of innocent people are being killed indiscriminately.

Putin, in a meeting with security and law enforcement officials a day after a mob stormed the airport in the southern region of Dagestan, said the situation in the Middle East is being used by “geopolitical puppet masters” for selfish purposes.

He said nothing can justify the bombing of hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens in Gaza, and stressed that various tactics, including "lies, provocations, and sophisticated technologies of psychological and information aggression," are being employed to exploit the turmoil in the Middle East and regional conflicts with the aim of destabilizing and dividing "diverse and multi-religious Russian society."

Emphasizing that the new crisis in the Middle East began with the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, he said: "Instead of punishing criminals and terrorists, unfortunately, they began to take revenge on the principle of collective responsibility."

Late Sunday, several hundred people broke into the airport’s international terminal and landing area after the arrival of a regular flight from Tel Aviv.

Following the incident, authorities in Dagestan closed the airport temporarily.