Bomb threats in Europe: the founder of the “male state” in Russia denies any link with the disturbances

He claims to have nothing to do with it. The founder of the “Male State”, a Russian masculinist movement banned for five years in his country, denied, on Friday November 6, any link with the false bomb alerts which are multiplying in Europe. Some organizations affected by these false alarms, such as the airports of Birmingham, Rome and Sofia, had received messages signed by so-called “male state fighters”.

In response to questions from journalists, Vladislav Pozdniakov affirmed on Telegram that his movement “simply does not exist since 2021”, the year it was banned by the Russian authorities. “Those who are organizing provocations today on the territory of European Union countries are acting in their own interests, simply using a flag that is not theirs,” he added.

The Masculine State was founded in 2016 by Vladislav Pozdniakov, blogger and sports coach, initially as a community on the Russian social network VK. It then took on a semi-political character, with an ideology mixing misogyny and nationalism. The movement, which never gained much momentum, was best known for online harassment campaigns, until it was declared "extremist" and banned by Russian authorities in 2021. According to media reports, the movement survived on the internet and transformed into a community of support for the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, launched in 2022.

False alarms extended to the media sector?

False bomb threats have disrupted European air traffic for several days, causing delays or forcing fighter jets to take off to escort civilian planes. These bomb threats come against a backdrop of an increase in “hybrid attacks” in Europe, some of which authorities or researchers link to Russia and, sometimes, to Iran.

New developments, Friday: the premises of several media outlets were evacuated on Friday in Ireland, after "very serious threats", according to the Irish government. These alerts “come in the wake of disruptions to aviation in Europe, targeted by similar threats, and it seems likely that this is a coordinated campaign aimed at causing disruption,” Dublin said. The British channel Sky News also claimed to have received a “threat targeting its security”. In France, the TF1 channel also announced that it was the victim of a false bomb threat.