Underwear-Clad Russian Flight-School Cadets Strap on Harnesses and Twerk in Video

Russian cadets at a world-famous flight school are getting scorned by the government, while the Internet is delightful giddy over the students' cheeky lip-sync video. The first-year students at Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation are shown dancing around in little more than their underwear (and by little more, we also mean BDSM leather body straps and caps). The video, set to “Satisfaction,” the boys eat bananas and even twerk while clearly having a good time showing off their bodies and moves.

Unfortunately the Russian government didn’t think the video was entertaining. Russia’s Federal Air Transport said their behavior was “outrageous” and that anyone who participated in the video would surely not receive their pilots’ licenses.  Fortunately, we live in a global world, and the Internet reacted so positively to the video—over 400k signed a petition defending them—the Russian government softened its initial reaction.

According to the BBC: “Yevgeny Roizman, the mayor of the Russian city of Yekaterinburg implored the head of the Institute to release a statement defending these "coolest" students. His Facebook post calling for such has gained more than 3,000 positive reactions and been shared more than 200 times.

His suggested tongue-in-cheek wording for such a statement from the Institute read: "My cadets are the coolest, they made a jaw-dropping clip and showed that they are audacious and nimble-witted… Our school is the best. But those who would talk nonsense about my cadets will deal with me."

Students from this school generally go on to become members of the air force or work commercially for brands like Aeroflot.