Airports in Europe have registered bomb threats again this Friday. This Thursday, at least 25 flights on the continent were affected by this type of incident. Supposedly, behind the bomb threats is the organization 'Male State'.
"We, fighters of the 'Male State', will leave a mark on history with our actions today," said the email received Thursday by several airports, including those in Italy. The message threatened to "dye the skies red" by detonating the explosives.
It has not yet been confirmed whether the group authoring the threats is part of a movement that has the same name that emerged in Russia. In 2016, the Russian Vladislav Pozdniakov founded the 'Male State', a misogynistic group created as a closed community on social networks. It started as a group on Vkontakte, the Russian version of Facebook. Today it could have disappeared or, according to other sources, be called Male Legion.
Anti-feminist, anti-Ukrainian and anti-Semitic
Its founding principles include nationalism and white supremacy, as well as fierce opposition to feminism and gay rights. Experts affirm that, in recent years, they have added anti-Semitism and opposition to the Ukrainian government to misogyny among the ideals of their movement.
So the Masculine State is anti-feminist, anti-Ukrainian and anti-Semitic and works from a threat. As an example, Newsweek reports, a Russian sushi chain was targeted online for launching an advertisement in which a black man appeared surrounded by three women of Slavic origin.
According to Russian media, Pozdniakov was sentenced to two years of probation in 2018 for inciting hatred against women. Russian prosecutors argued that 'Male State' had relentlessly harassed women and gay people online. However, the sentence was overturned about three months later, when Russia changed its extremism laws.
The movement gained widespread notoriety after Pozdniakov and his collaborators attacked women who were seen in public with foreigners (especially non-white people) during the 2018 Soccer World Cup, held in Russia. By 2019, 'Male State' had more than 155,000 members, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. While the majority are young men, some women have joined the group.
Central element of the Russian manosphere
In an analysis published in 2024, the Dutch International Center for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) considered that the group had become a central element of the Russian manosphere. According to analysts, many of the group's members have made efforts to distance themselves from the incel (involuntarily celibate) community that blames women for their inability to find partners or have sex.
In autumn 2021, a court in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region banned 'Male State', calling the group an extremist movement. Their activities were banned in Russian territory, after which their channels on Telegram and YouTube were blocked.
However, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – a few months after the court ruling – its members became fervent defenders of the war promoted by Vladimir Putin. Before the conflict, the movement had been highly critical of the Russian president.
Is 'Male State' today the 'Male Legion'?
The leader of the group maintains a personal channel that bears his name (Pozdniakov 3.0) on which he posted several videos and materials on Thursday, reports Efe. Precisely, in one of them he published his response to the questions posed to him by a BBC journalist in the Russian version and in which he stated: "It ('Male State') no longer exists for many years."
Perhaps Pozdniakov is referring to the fact that, according to some sources, they are today called the 'Male Legion' and have focused on supporting the invasion of Ukraine. "The group does not intend to recruit anyone to fight in Ukraine, however, it functions as a powerful channel for the dissemination and consolidation of extremist ideas," according to Anna Kruglova of the ICCT. The group also shares news coming, in many cases, from intelligence sources.
