Chronicle of Swedes' flight over Belarus: new details

May 9, 2012 — Per Cromwell and three other participants of the action visit Belarus for the first time. They stay in one of the apartment rented by real estate broker Syarhei Basharymau.

 

"We spent two days here, the four of us. We drove around the capital's area in a rented car, studied Minsk, found the building of the Swedish Embassy (in case of forced landing we planned to hide in the Embassy)", — Cromwell tells Euroradio.

 

Early July —  Studio Total is getting prepared for the action in Vilnius. They "try out" the bears, throwing them from a high building.

July 2 — The Swedes are preparing the plane for the flight - they cut out a special window for throwing the plush toys down (video).

July 3 — Cromwell came to Minsk again late at night. The Swede got the visa upon Basharymau's invitation. However, Cromwell cancelled the reservation of the apartment in Karl Marx Street which he was going to rent from Basharymau again, upon his arrival to Minsk. He cancelled the reservation by a text message, and did not contact Basharymau anymore. Probably, the Swede planned not to stay at Basharymau's apartment for the night since the very beginning and used the Belarusian real estate broker only to get an invitation for the visa.

July 4 — Per Cromwell went to Ivyanets, parked his car near the Orthodox Church and waited for the appearance of the plane in the sky above the town.

July 4  — The plane appeared at about 8 a.m., made two circles above the church, threw the bears down and got back to Lithuania.

July 4  — Cromwell took pictures of the plane from the ground, filmed a short video and got back to Minsk, and started to Stockholm from there straightaway.

July 4 -  about 11 a.m. Belarusian time — first information about the flight appear in the Swedish media, as well as pictures and videos. Belarusian media re-post it all (video).

July 4, 12 a.m. - 6 p.m. — the Belarusian independent media and news web portals disseminate information about the Swedes' flight over Belarus. However, the tone of informing is not confident. It is not seen in the published video where exactly the plane is flying and there was also no information about finding the toys in Belarus.

July 4, at about 3 p.m. - the Belarusian Ministry of Defense calls the publication of photos and videos with the Swedish teddy bears "a provocation", "a Photoshop and video fake".

July 4, 9 p.m. - first photos of the teddy bears, found in Ivyanets, appear. They are published by Anton Surapin, editor of the web-site bnp.by. The journalist informs that he got the photos "from an anonymous reader who doesn't live in Minsk".

July 5 — Studio Total publishes new videos of the flight. This time the length of the video is 1,5 hours - almost the whole time of the plane's stay in the air territory of Belarus. The moment of start from the Kaunas airport "Pociūnai" is clearly seen in the video, as well as flying over the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, over the Minsk micro-district "Sukharava", over Ivyanets. There are practically no more doubts that the flight was real.

 

July 5 — Journalists of the independent media in Ivyanets find witnesses of the plane flight and the "teddy bears landing". Even head of the local communal services department confirms that it was real. The inhabitants of the village tell that the police collected all the "law-breakers" and that they are kept in the police department (video).

July 6, about 6 p.m. - first detentions in the "Swedish landing" case. The KGB officers take real estate broker Syarhei Basharymau and his girlfriend Iryna for interrogation, and tell both of them that they are suspected in participation in violation the border by a group of people. 

July 7, 4 p.m. - A search done in the house of the real estate broker's girlfriend. The KGB men take a laptop, a hard disc, flash-cards. The girl is interrogated in the KGB prison for the second time and released. The suspicions against her are withdrawn. 

July 13, 10 a.m. - The KGB officers come to Anton Surapin's place with a search. He was the first to publish the photos of the Swedish bears in Ivyanets. After the search Surapin disappears. Only late at night, a lawyer on duty calls Anton Surapin's mother from the KGB detention center and informs that her son is detained under the suspicion in participation in violation the border by a group of people. 

July 14 — information about detention of real estate broker Basharymau in the framework of the "teddy bears case" gets into the media. Nothing was known about it before. The officals still deny the fact of the illegal flight of a light-motor plane over our country. The KGB refuses to comment on detention of Surapin and Basharymau, while the State Frontier Committee knows nothing about the fact of violation of the border by a group of people. 

July 17 — Basharymau is presented an accusation of participation in violation the border by a group of people. He faces 3-7 years of imprisonment.

July 23  — The 10-days term of detention of photographer Anton Surapin expires. The investigator calls the journalist's lawyer for a conversation on an urgent basis. Some time later the lawyer comes out of the building and informs the lawyer of the Belarusian Association of Journalists that Anton Surapin stays in custody although no accusation has been drawn against him. This contradicts the Belarusian legislation.

July 26  — State leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka at last admit the fact that there had been an illegal flight of the Swedish plane over our country. "How to explain the provocation with a light-motor plane which not only crossed the border but broke into the territory of Belarus unpunished?" - Alyaksandr Lukashenka asked the representatives of the force structures. "In the first place, this is our citizens' security. Moreover, this plane was detected in due time. So why didn't the bosses stop this flight? Whom did they feel pity for? Is this is a failure of concrete executors, or maybe the mistakes in the very system of the state air border guarding? I would like to get answers to these questions... I will take a decision after this consultative session, on Monday at the latest, and it is going to include personnel decisions as well". The news agency BELTA published the state leader's words - this was the first publication of the official media which admitted the fact of the "teddy bears landing".

July 27  — The State Frontier Committee indirectly admits the fact of the border violation by the light-motor plane. Meanwhile, there are no official comments from the Ministry of Defense and the KGB, which investigates the case.

July 31  — Chairman of the Frontier Committee Ihar Rachkouski and Commander of the air forces and air defense troops Zmitser Pakhmelkin were discharged for "improper fulfillment of professional obligations of granting the national security". They will be assigned at disposal of the State Frontier Committee and the Minister of Defense.

Minister of Defense Yury Zhadobin and Head of the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces, first Deputy Minister of Defense General-Mayor Pyotr Tsikhanouski were warned about their partial professional nonconformity.

Moreover, reprimands were announced to State Secretary of the Security Council Leanid Maltsau and head of the KGB Vadzim Zaitsau.