"Kommersant": Lukashenka will have to answer to Moscow

Russia has a joint air defense system with Belarus and the Belarusian border was "full of holes."

The story of the "bombardment of Belarus with Teddy bears" was documented. Video footage appeared on Belarusian web recourses during the weekend proving that the country's airspace was violated by Swedish human rights defenders.

Experts in Minsk believe that the incident can cost a lot for Belarusian security officials, and compare the incident with the appearance of Mathias Rust on the airplane above the Red Square in 1987, says "Kommersant".

Video footage posted on the Internet, was accompanied by comments of one of participants of the scandalous flight - a girl named Hannah. She said that on the initiative of the Swedish PR-agency Studio Total was organized a campaign called "landing bear cubs", designed to draw attention to the issue of human rights violations in Belarus. "We are very concerned about freedom of speech in Belarus. We believe that Belarus is a part of Europe and it is fairly closed country"- said Hannah.

The event was held on July 4, when the Independence Day in Belarus was celebrated. Two Swedish human rights defenders crossed the Lithuanian-Belarusian border in a single-engine aircraft. They don’t call their full names fearing of retaliation of the Belarusian authorities. Above the Ivyanets city of Minsk region they scattered teddy bears through the streets, to which were attached flyers with slogans in defense of human rights. Then they flew up to Minsk and flew over the Malinovka neighborhood. Streets and houses of this neighborhood are clearly visible on the footage. In general, they have spent hour and a half in the skies over Belarus and, remained undetected by Belarusian air defense system, freely returned to Lithuania.

The day after the Swedes posted photographs taken in flight online. This caused a scandal in Belarus. Local military tried to disprove the fact of violation of the border. The press service of the Ministry of Defense reported that "experts, exploring the provided photographs, revealed rough work with the use of Photoshop technology which clearly indicates the provocative nature of the information provided." But one failed to deny the facts long. On Friday the Lithuanian border service confirmed the violation of its border with Belarus by a light single-engine plane that was flying at a speed of 180 km / h. The same day there were reports that the police of the Ivyanets city was walking through its streets and picking up the teddy bears.

Belarusian documentalist Yuri Khaschevatsky said that he saw the footage, posted on the Internet, and did not see there any photo or video editing. According to him, the incident is a very strong insult to the Belarusian state, and government will take action against the military, responsible for air defense. On the other hand, the expert said that Russia had a joint air defense system with Belarus and the incident may be the reason for the hard talk of Moscow with Minsk. "All this proves, what worth the words of Alexander Lukashenko that he securely covers the western borders of Russia", - summed up Yuri Khaschevatsky.