At one time, the "plush landing" made a lot of noise in Belarus, and some activists still cannot calm down about this. Under this name, a protest action was held against the Lukashenka regime in support of the opposition and freedom of speech. It was organized by the Swedish advertising company Studio Total, known for its unusual antics and original PR campaigns.
Only four people were involved in the protest, one was in Sweden, the other in Belarus, and two - Thomas Mazetti and Hanna-Lina Frey - controlled a light aircraft and directly threw out plush paratroopers. This event happened on July 4, 2012, but Lukashenko recognized it only on July 26.
It all started when the organizers of the protest found out about the murder of a Belarusian human rights activist who supported the opposition. The Swedes could not calm down for a long time and, in the end, decided to express support for the protesting Belarusian citizens in order not to allow the dictator to continue to kill people with impunity,intimidating others. Mazetti and Cromwell approach their work with humor, so they chose a teddy bear as the main character. This also expressed support for the opposition protesters on the streets with posters for democracy and freedom of speech with soft toys.
The plush troops took off into the sky from the Lithuanian Potsyunay airfield, illegally crossed the Belarusian border and threw the bears over the settlements of Ivenets and Bakshty, reaching the outskirts of the capital. All this action was filmed on video, which the organizers then posted on the Internet. Despite the obviousness of the facts, the government of Belarus categorically declared the falsification of the recordings, which were taken with the aim of provoking the state, but was soon forced to admit defeat.
Experts still cannot agree on what the “plush landing” really was - an action to draw attention to human rights or a self-promotion of a Swedish advertising agency. After that, troubles fell on the heads of innocent Belarusians. So, the photographer Anton Suryapin, who was the first to publish photos of toys on his website, was arrested, as well as Sergey Basharimov, a re altor who rented an apartment to the Swedes who participated in the protest. Then two more journalists were arrested for wanting to be photographed with the bear.
The plush landing had a negative impact on the careers of some officials who did not see the illegal border crossing of Belarus in time. Then the authorities refused to renew the accreditation of the Ambassador of Sweden, andthe Belarusian embassy in full force was withdrawn from Sweden. Thus, the teddy bear quarreled between two neighboring states.
Many Belarusians stand in defense of the brave and creative Swedes, believing that they managed to achieve their goal - to make Lukashenko look ridiculous and draw public attention to the restriction of human rights and freedom of speech in this country. But there are also opponents who believe that the organizers of the action should not stick their nose into other people's affairs, and the protest itself did not bring anything good for the citizens of Belarus. Mazetti himself does not take responsibility for the arrest of Belarusians, since he believes that they were imprisoned by a dictator.
