Swedish Foreign Minister: Lukashenka behaves like bandit

Carl Bildt has no doubts the Belarusian ruler stands behind the new diplomatic row.

“Lukashenka behaves like a bandit. I don't know why he chose escalation. It's not a secret that our democracy programme has been annoying the  Belarusian authorities for a long time. They just demonstrated their anger now. No doubts that Lukashenka stands behind this,” the Swedish Foreign Minister said in an interview for TT news agency.

We remind the information appeared today that Belarus withdraws its embassy staff from Sweden. The Belarusian MFA says the reason for this step was the expulsion of two Belarusian diplomats from Sweden. It happened after Belarus did not renew accreditation for Swedish Ambassador to Minsk Stefan Eriksson.

The diplomatic row came after the Swedish teddy bear drop.

As charetr97.org already reported, a light Swedish aircraft overflew the Belarusian border on July 4. Teddy bears with pro-democracy labels were dropped from the plane over the town of Ivyanets and on the outskirts of Minsk. The Belarusian authorities refused to admit the fact of flight until July 26 saying “the investigation was under way”. Photographer Anton Surapin, who published photos of teddy bears found near Ivyanets on the internet, and estate agent Syarhei Basharymau, who rented an apartment to the Swedes, were detained  and charged with aiding the illegal border crossing. Both may face up to seven years in prison.

Lukashenka dismissed head of the State Border Committee Major General Ihar Rachkouski and commander of the Air and Air Defence Forces Major General Dzmitry Pakhmelkin.