Newsrooms face bomb threats as campaign of psychological warfare across Europe escalates

Newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria received emailed bomb threats on Friday from a purported “Mikhail Andropov,” claiming responsibility for a widening wave of hoax threats disrupting passenger flights across Europe.The messages, sent to Bulgaria’s Nova TV and the Irish public broadcaster RTE, which evacuated its offices and suspended programming, were headlined “Message to the West” and portrayed the threats as the prelude to a series of attacks on means of transport across Europe.The British broadcaster Sky also said it had received a security threat.Reuters was not able to establish the identity of the sender, the origin of the emails, or whether they had in fact come from the same source as the threats to any or all of the dozens of flights affected since Tuesday.But they added to concern among European officials that the hoaxes are part of a campaign of “hybrid” disruptions, which many have blamed on Russia, aimed at countries that have helped Ukraine.

Moscow has denied involvement.Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Europe appeared to be facing “hybrid aggression and a form of psychological warfare.”No explosive devices were found and all planes, including those threatened on Friday, landed safely.Security experts said on Thursday that the threats might be intended to punish European nations that have armed or financed Ukraine as it resists the full-scale invasion Russia launched in 2022.It was also possible, however, that individuals were laying false trails, issuing copycat threats or acting on personal grievances.Around half a dozen flights were disrupted in some way on Tuesday and more than two dozen on Thursday, some of them making unplanned landings or being escorted to their destinations by fighter jets.On Friday, an Italian airport authority source said a Wizz Air flight from Prague to Rome had been diverted to Venice but, despite more than a dozen hoax threats, overall there was far less direct disruption to air travel....