MINSK, (Reuters) – Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko yesterday sacked his air defence chief and the head of the border guards for failing to stop a Swedish plane drop hundreds of teddy bears over the hardline state in a pro-democracy stunt.
The plane, chartered by a Swedish public relations firm, crossed into Belarussian air space from Lithuania on July 4 and dropped about 800 of the toy bears near the town of Ivenets.
Each bear carried a message calling for Belarus to show greater respect for individual human rights.
In a statement yesterday, the presidential press service said that Dmitry Pakhmelkin, the country’s air defence chief, and Igor Rachkovsky, the head of the border guards, had been dismissed “for not properly carrying out their duties in safeguarding Belarussian national security.” Other senior state security officials had been reprimanded too, the statement said.
