Russian extremist group European flight bomb threats

The Russian extremist group “Muzhskoye Gosudarstvo” (Male State) has claimed responsibility for a series of bomb threats targeting passenger aircraft across Europe. The group sent emails threatening to “color the sky red” in an effort to fight against what they described as a “feminist regime.”

The threats caused multiple disruptions to aviation, including unplanned landings and security diversions. Affected flights included an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome, a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Rome which received a military escort, and three aircraft in Bulgaria that made emergency landings in Sofia and Plovdiv. While Bulgarian authorities assessed the credibility of the threats as low, the incidents caused widespread concern.

Male State is a white supremacist and anti-feminist organization founded in 2016 by Vladislav Pozdnyakov. Although the group was formally outlawed by a court in Nizhny Novgorod in 2021, its activity has reportedly increased. Analysts have noted that the group often engages in information warfare, and the ability to cause panic in European airspace has raised questions regarding potential state complicity or a lack of intervention.