Unnoticed airspace violation is not the reason to cancel awards.
The presidential decree ‘On decorating with the medal For Impeccable Service of the I, II and III grades’ signed by Lukashenka on July 16 — a fortnight after ‘bear drop’ over Belarus — brought the state awards for more than 40 air defence officers who “outstandingly perform their duties”, Euroradio reports.
The President conferred decorations upon the officers responsible for North and North-East Belarus, i.e. the units controlling air border with Lithuania.
As it was previously reported, the ‘bear bombers’: two Swedish pilots Thomas Mazetti and Hannah Lina Frey took off in Lithuania, illegally crossed the air border with Belarus and dropped ca. 1,000 teddy bears with pro free-speech banners over Belarus.
The military officials have not recognized the fact hitherto. However, a Belarusian photographer, journalism student and web-editor of the website Belarus News Photo Anton Surapin, 20, — the first person to upload the photos of Swedish teddy bears on the Internet — was held by the KGB on July 13. As Belarusian mass media inform, he is charged with assisting to illegally cross the state’s border. He remains in the KGB remand prison hitherto.
Per Cromwell, the founder of Studio Total, addressed Aliaksandr Lukashenka with the open letter reiterating once again that Swedes responsible for the action did not contact any Belarusians.
Belarusian officials did not recognize the fact of Swedish plane crossing Belarus’ air border. The footages uploaded by the very pilots were called fake.
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