Swedish pilots rewarded charter97.org’s editor-in-chief

(updated) Natalia Radzina earned the Alvar Aalto award.

The award is name after a Finish architect and artist, who lived in past centuries. It is awarded to a carefully selected group of people, who “do their job in their own way”, according to the award’s official web-site.

“Alvar Aalto created his own sets of vases at the height of totalitarianism in Europe. At that time pathos forms were considered ideal. But he picked the opposite direction and created vases of small and fragile shapes. They were made with imperfections, which is characteristic of a man’s handcraft. It was then more than a shape, it was an address to people, which was the reason the award was established”, - Tomas Mazetti from the Studio Total says.

Among the award’s 36 winners there are journalists, musicians, designers, bloggers, artists and activists from around the world.

“Natalia Radzina does not need to be introduced: she is charter97.org’s editor-in-chief and diligently fights for human rights. She is a Belarusian in exile, who inspires everyone fighting a totalitarian system”, - the award’s founders say.

We would remind that in the morning on 4 July 2012 a light civic jet, piloted by two Swedish citizens, flew from Lithuania and crossed the border with Belarus, and dropped teddy bears in Minsk and Ivianiec with calls for the freedom of speech in the country. Belarus’ KGB started a criminal case on the fact of illegal border crossing, two Belarusian citizens were detained. They were later released under a recognizance not to leave.

The dictator also dressed down officials for the flight of the Swedes over Belarus and fired the chairman of the State Border Control Committee Ihar Rachkouski and the commander of the air defense and air forces Dzmitry Pakhmielkin.

KGB closed filed on the case of the “teddy bear landing force” only in June last year.