Bomb threats in Europe: founder of Russian “Male State” movement denies involvement

The founder of the “Male State”, a Russian masculinist movement which was banned in 2021 for “extremism”, denied on Friday any link with the false bomb threats which are increasing in Europe. Some organizations affected by these false alerts such as the airports of Birmingham, Rome or Sofia had received messages signed by so-called “male state fighters”.

In response to questions from journalists on this subject, the founder of this movement, Vladislav Pozdniakov, affirmed on Telegram that it “simply does not exist since 2021”, the year of its ban by the Russian authorities.

“Those who are organizing provocations today on the territory of the countries of the European Union (in the name of this movement, editor's note) are acting in their own interest, by simply using a flag that is not theirs,” he added. “It's not that I particularly care about Europe, its security or its economy (in reality, I don't care at all), I just respond to European journalists,” he explained.

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.

The “Male 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 had a large scale, 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.