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Teddybear Airdrop Minsk 2012 was an aerial event that took place over Belarus on July 4, 2012. An airplane, chartered by the Swedish advertising agency Studio Total, illegally entered the Belarusian airspace on July 4 and parachuted several hundred teddy bears with notes carrying pro-democracy messages. After denying for three weeks that the incident ever took place and calling the footage of the airdrop released by Studio Total a hoax, the Belarus government finally acknowledged on July 26, 2012, that the teddy bear airdrop did happen. The event greatly angered the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, who viewed it as a significant national security failure. Lukashenko sacked two top generals, the heads of Belarus’ border guards and of Air Defense, for failing to intercept the Studio Total plane.〔 The airdrop led to an escalating diplomatic crisis in relations between Belarus and Sweden. On August 3, 2012, Belarus expelled the Swedish Ambassador and subsequently ordered the remaining staff of the Swedish embassy to leave Belarus by the end of the month. Belarus also withdrew its ambassador and all of its embassy staff from Sweden. ==The airdrop== On July 4, 2012, a small airplane, chartered by the Swedish advertising agency Studio Total and with two people on board, took off from an airfield in Lithuania〔 and illegally entered the Belarus airspace, crossing the Belarusian border from Lithuania. The plane dropped several hundred teddy bears, carrying cards and notes with pro-democracy, pro-freedom of speech and protest messages, over the Belarusian town of Ivyanets, near Minsk. The organizers of the airdrop originally planned to drop some of the teddy bears over state government buildings in Minsk, but uncertainties over the fuel supply and also the fact that the plane had been contacted by the Belarusian air traffic controllers resulted in a decision to drop the bears over Ivyanets and then head back.〔( 'Teddybear Airdrop' Takes Aim At Belarus Denials ), Radio Free Europe, July 13, 2012. Accessed August 9, 2012〕 The plane crossed back over the border into Lithuania without encountering any interference from the Belarusian military.〔(Teddy Bear paratroopers land reporter in Belarus jail ), RT, July 16, 2012. Accessed August 9, 2012〕 Per Cromwell, the founder of Studio Total, was in a car on the ground in Ivyanets during the airdrop.〔(Swedes slam Belarus over teddy bear arrests ), The Local, July 19, 2012. Accessed August 9, 2012〕 Various newsreports put the total number of teddy bears dropped at around 800.〔(Belarus charges two over teddy bear air drop ), Reuters, August 7, 2012. Accessed August 9, 2012〕〔(World Belarus Journalists Fined Over Teddy Bear Stunt ), RIA Novosti, August 9, 2012. Accessed August 9, 2012〕〔 The airdrop operation was dubbed "Teddybear Airdrop Minsk 2012" by its Studio Total organizers.〔〔(Europe's Last Dictatorship Is Being Torn Apart By Hundreds Of These Cute Teddy Bears ), Business Insider, August 1, 2012. Accessed August 10, 2012〕 One of the pilots of the Studio Total plane involved in the airdrop, Tomas Mazetti, stated that the idea to use teddy bears came from Belarusian pro-democracy activists, who had been arrested on many occasions by the authorities and started carrying teddy bears with protest slogans demanding freedom of speech. The teddy bears were regularly confiscated by the police and the Studio Total airdrop was intended as a solidarity gesture: "we flew in teddy bears and airdropped them to support those arrested teddy bears".〔(Belarus in a stir as teddy bears fall from the sky ), Deutsche Welle, August 2, 2012. Accessed August 9, 2012〕 Studio Total maintains that no Belarusian democracy activists were involved in planning the teddy bear airdrop. According to Mazetti, the flight inside Belarusian airspace lasted for about an hour and a half, at the altitude of about 50 meters, or 150 feet.〔(Belarus attacked by Teddy Bears ), New Europe, August 2, 2012. Accessed August 10, 2012〕 The two people on board the teddy bear flight, Tomas Mazetti and Hannah Frey, spent about a year preparing for the airdrop operation. Their preparations included buying a three-seater Jodel plane and learning to pilot it, spending the equivalent of about US$184,500 in the process.〔(Teddy bears drop in, bring down 2 Belarus generals ), Denver Post, August 2, 2012. Accessed August 10, 2012〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Teddybear Airdrop Minsk 2012」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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