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Studio Total via EPA
The teddy bears — 879 of them — landing by parachute in a residential area in Minsk, Belarus, on July 4, the country's Independence Day.
Sweden and Belarus are locked in a diplomatic war over hundreds of cute, fuzzy teddy bears — a threat so menacing that two Belarusan generals have been fired and the countries have rejected each other's ambassadors.
The strife over the stuffies began July 4 — which is also Belarus' Independence Day.
A light plane flew over Minsk from Sweden and dropped 879 teddy bears, which carried pro-democracy messages. Sweden has long been open about its desire to see democracy take root in Belarus, a former Soviet republic led by a Soviet-style strongman, Alexander Lukashenko.
Belarus didn't publicly acknowledge the airdrop until last week, when Lukashenko criticized military authorities for allowing the plane to enter Belarusan air space and carry out its "provocation."
After that, action was swift: Lukashenko fired the generals in charge of air defense and the border patrol Tuesday, and authorities arrested two civilians — a journalism student who put pictures of the teddy bears on his website and a property manager who offered an apartment to the plane's Swedish pilots, two pro-democracy advertising agents.
The two men were accused of assisting border violators and face up to seven years in prison if convicted, said Amnesty International, which declared them prisoners of conscience.
Lukashenko ordered his new border guard chief to "stop any and all air intrusions "by all force and means, including weapons, regardless of anything," Reuters reported.
"The border guards must prove their loyalty to the fatherland," he said.
Friday, the Swedish Foreign Ministry claimed that Belarus had expelled its ambassador, Stefan Eriksson, in retaliation for the airdrop, calling it "a serious breach of the norms for relations between states."
Belarus denied that it had expelled the diplomat — it said it had merely decided "not to renew his accreditation" because "his activities were aimed not at the strengthening of relations between Belarus and Sweden, but on their erosion."
In a statement, Sweden responded with its own tat for Belarus' tit:
"The Embassy of Belarus in Stockholm will be informed during the day that the proposed new Belarus Ambassador is not welcome here and that the residence permits in Sweden of two of its representatives will be withdrawn."
The latest move by Belarus — which said it would be "forced to react adequately" — was still awaited Friday afternoon.
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Leave a Comment:
The US needs to join the new millenium and end it's colonial imperialist aggression and its anti-Slavic attacks.
and how does this have anything to do with the US?
Our enemies will all be crushed soon. Death to the Slavs!!
We need to drop go back to dropping candy again.
http://www.thecandybombers.com/
?????
otto forgot to take his meds today. Please forgive him.
The candy bombers should have dropped those kids some shirts. All the little boys were shirtless. Why did the Swedes bomb Belarus with teddy bears? Don't they have a history of not getting involved?
I'm wondering if some of Romney's off-shore money and out-sourced workers are involved in this...uh....foreign policy stunt.
Desertbro,
That was the dumbest thing I have read today and I have seen some pretty stupid comments.
*shhhhhhh* ... please ... don't feed the trolls ... :c)
im sure,did you hear he hasnt payed taxes for 10 years ,thats what crazy harry says.
if you read it on the internet it's true...yup...the girl's all like me for my big brain...
Ah, the old teddy bear ploy. Beware of cute, fuzzy and cuddly stuffies. Next there will be a mock 'Trojan Bear.'
Truly, a dire form psychological warfare.
Wow this Lukashenko guy sounds more than a little evil and creepy. To be fair, though, he never had a dad (or, apparently, a teddy bear) to hug as a child.
Right, "evil and creepy" to dismiss military personnel who don't do their jobs. Anywhere else, US military included, if they were asleep at the switch, they'd have been put in front of a firing squad and shot.
Ummmmm....I'm pretty sure the US (or most countries, really) don't use firing squads. I'm just sayin. This is a funny idea gone bad.
While I get the aspect of border security, it seems as if Lukashenko needs to mega lighten up so he stops looking like the AHole of the universe. What a silly and stupid little bureaucrat. Bringing diplomatic staff into the mix. Really?? Obviously the people were ok with this so even in a country like Belarus it might be good to have the people involved in having a say in their own government and deciding what they expect in terms of "loyalty to the fatherland". The citizens ARE the fatherland Lukashenko you jerk!!
I just have to ask this, if Lukashenko is so intent on demanding true border security, can we clone him or at least hire him to replace Nappy as the secretary of DHS? He's angry over a few dozen teddy bears one time, imagine how upset he'd be over a few thousand drug smugglers and human traffickers crossing the border every month. We might have a secure borders initiative that actually involved securing the borders instead of handing the illegals free passes to commit crimes free from fear of prosecution, as long as they're willing to lie on the stand about how they were treated by border guards. Why do I think Lukashenko would give medals to border guards for actually roughing up illegal aliens instead of prosecuting them for supposedly doing so. Yes the US attorney's office in El Paso has given known drug smugglers free passes (immunity) for their testimony against US Border Patrol agents. Then let the smugglers off the hook when they're arrested AGAIN with loads of illegal drugs.
He's just mad cause he didn't get one of the teddy bears to sleep with...
They should be charged with littering and then both sides should get over it and get on with it.
Laura, Belarus has capital punishment. I'd worry that littering might be a capital offense if teddy bears can cause all this.
They should be told that millions of people in 3rd world countries have REAL problems.
Belarus is a THIRD WORLD country, Annie...
Valiarius, Third World originated from the cold war.. 1st world was allied with NATO, 2nd world was with USSR and 3rd world most likely didnt even have the technology for long range mass-communication..
Modern time defines it the technology or economy of the country mostly.. Where they are at on that stage I dont know but because they dont have our luxuries doesnt make them third world.
If someone can drop a bunch of teddybears over them with impunity, I would call that third world.
Teddy Bears originated to represent the bear that Theodore Roosevelt wouldn't shoot when he was on a bear hunt because the bear was tied up and he thought it "unsportsman-like". Are the Swedes sending Lukashenko a symbolic message?
yup...the teddy bear routine only work's for some people...enjoy...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89MihWd6zKk
Now, now, children, it's time to put away your teddy bears and start acting like adults. Sheesh, my little grandchildren act more adult-like than these morons. It seems the more power people have, the stupider they get.
This Lukashenko sounds like a bona fide dictator, unless of course the "teddy bears" are carrying some type of biological warfare agent.
Bela who?
You know. Bela Rus of "Teddy Bear Wars" fame. There has to be a book in there somewhere. LOL
I'm siding with Sweden here, but I have a feeling, mysteriously, they never would have done this to any Eastern European country back in the old Communist days...like maybe the Soviet Union would have been too dangerous to try this on, but they wouldn't have done it to Poland or one of the other closer enslaved countries in their neck of the woods.
Communist repression always got that mysterious disinterest or a special "pass". (Yes they're murdering people, but dang it, the economy is run by the govt, so...)
Speechless...
I can't see this turning into a real war... I mean...
How could anybody actually fight and die in something history will forever call the "teddy bear war."
I mean, I'd die of embarrassment long before I reached the front lines.
"I can't see this turning into a real war... I mean..."
Wait until some civilian airliner tracks off-course and is shot down by a Belarus air defence missile. Wars have been started by accident or by egoism before: i.e. Spanish-American war and World War I bas two easy examples.
why not...there was the war of the roses at one time...
Well what the heck, I guess all the diplomatism has worked and we ran out of wars. I suspect this is a USA CIA plot to initiate another war and take the focus off Afganistan since it is running out of steam as no one can figure out what it is we are fighting for. This for sure will create a new border of " no visitors to the theme parks are allowed" in either country, oh wait that will hurt someones ecomomy so that won't work very will I guess. Boy this is really complicated, we better spend more on military, oh wait they can't get enough new recruits as it is because to many new signups are to fat to serve, boy are we in trouble here.
diplomatism? ;-)
But wait! Captain PIckett (soon to be General Pickett of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg) was involved in a "Pig War" with his 50 troopers against 5000 British Marines. What a guy!
If there's one thing dictators can't stand, it's having people laugh at them.
Alan you are so right! Narcissistic sociopaths are well known for having a serious lack of humor (go figure). I propose that we get his email account or videotape a crowd singing a little ditty about Lukashenko and the big bad teddy bears and post it on UTube and leak the info out so he can see the entire world laughing at him. He would be apoplectic and frothing at the mouth. OMG!! I know see that this little cretanis their President!! This lame brain Lukashenko is the President of Belarus....my condolences to the citizens.
Great idea - covering 'Miss Gradenko' by The Police would give us the music, but what the hell else rhymes with "Lukashenko"?
Alan, this is a great truth ... and precisely the reason we always should. Yes they bring death and horror ... but one of the greatest weapons against them is ... humor ... which is precisely why they deal so harshly with it within their borders .... as Stalin did ... as Hitler did and Pol Pot ... as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does and Kim Jong Un, Mugabe, Putin (oh yes, he belongs on this list, too) ... you name them.
Never forget they are death on legs, but never stop laughing at them ... as they always have been, and always shall be .... the greatest of fools ... for a fool never learns from the past.
Slap Fight !!!
If someone put the right thought behind it, they should drop 879 teddie bears & carebears over Syria.
Teddy yes, Care bears? you should nuke them instead. it would be more humain than Care bears :)
Maybe sweden should also drop some over the united states. We also could use some democracy.
Those people over there are on 'hair trigger' and something like this could be seen as an act of war!
In WWII, on D Day, toy soldiers were droped behind German lines and the Germans were fooled into shooting at them. See a copy of the movie 'Longest Day'.
In the late 1890s, the US and Great Brittain nearly went to war over an errant pig that had crossed the international border and destroyed some crops. The Brits sent a warship and trained it's guns on the 'Yanks' who also trained guns on the Brits. It took the Kaiser of Germany to broker a peace...'now boys, please play nice'!
Ah yes... the San Juan Island "Pig War". Started over a dispute about where the international border really was between Washington State and British Columbia. Ended amicably, thank goodness.
You can still walk up the hill to the fort that guarded the bay where the Brits meant to land. It's just a small rock line and grassed in, but you can see hints of the cannon revetments if you look for them.
It didn't end well for the pig. It was the only casualty. ROFL
... but we recall only one story which ended well for the pig ... other than Charlette's Web .. the pig rarely comes out well ... but then for those who read carefully ... the pig is important in Shakespeare .... Bacon, anyone?
When the Russians were in Afghanistan, they used a terror tactic on the civilians by dropping small bombs that looked like toys onto villages, many children were killed and crippled while playing with the 'toys'.
Also in the 1870s, the US Indian agents gave reservation Indians blankets infected with smallpox, whole tribes were wiped out.
Never happened, complete myth.
There is a story from the 1700's about a British commander who "wished the Indians besieging his fort would get smallpox", and among other things the Brits had given the Indians were blankets, which was common in trading. The Indians later did get smallpox, and people claim this proves the whiteys gave it to them. But there's no evidence.
As far as the 1870's and Indian agents giving them smallpox, complete Marxist lie with no historical evidence to support it of any kind.
Chesty, you're an idiot. and you're also full of poo.
Chesty...a Marxist lie? Please show me the evidence, this is a completely new theory. LOL
Tin foil must be on sale at the Piggly Wiggly.
When I was in Viet Nam, and we saw something in the road that was 'out-of-place', we didn't go near it and very carefuly investigated it (we invented the word 'IED' improvised explosive device). Todays soldiers do the same.
The veterans admin treats people like you that are still paranoid. I do UNDERSTAND what you said & in CERTAIN caes that is what happened. GET HELP......I DID!!!! PEACE & Semper Fi
Not so funny now that you think about it huh?
Please see the first page of comments for more of mine!
belarus's leader has such a small mind, perhaps he cant even grasp the significance of a teddy bear.
I bet there's one thing he does grasp, with appalling regularity. Thank goodness he does it out of public view.