At one time, the "plush landing" made a lot of noise in Belarus, and some activists on this subject can not calm down until now. Under this name, a rally was held against the Lukashenko regime in support of the opposition and freedom of speech. It was organized by the Swedish advertising company Studio Total, known for its unusual tricks and original PR-actions.
Only four people were involved in the protest, one was in Sweden, the other in Belarus, and two - Thomas Mazetti and Hannah-Lina Frey - controlled a light-engine aircraft and directly threw plush paratroopers. This event happened on July 4, 2012, but Lukashenko recognized him only on July 26.
It all started with the fact that the protest organizers learned 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 their support to the protesting Belarusian citizens so as not to allow the dictator to continue to kill people with impunity, intimidating the rest. Mazetti and Cromwell approach their work with humor, so they chose a teddy bear as the main character. It also expressed support for opposition members rallying in the streets with posters for democracy and freedom of speech with soft toys.
A plush landing flew up from the Lithuanian airfield Potsunai, illegally crossed the Belarusian border and threw bears over settlements Ivenets and Bakshty, reaching the outskirts of the capital. All this action was filmed on a video, which the organizers then posted on the Internet. Despite the obviousness of the facts, the Belarusian government categorically stated the falsification of the records, which were made in order to provoke the state, but was soon forced to admit defeat.
Experts still cannot agree on what the “plush landing” actually was - an action to draw attention to human rights or a self-PR of a Swedish advertising agency. After that, troubles fell on the heads of innocent Belarusians. So, photographer Anton Suryapin was arrested, the first to publish photos of toys on his website, as well as Sergey Basharimov, a realtor who rented an apartment to the Swedes who participated in the protest. Then they arrested two more journalists who wished to be photographed with a bear.
The plush landing also negatively affected the career of some officials who did not see the illegal crossing of the Belarusian border in time. Then the authorities refused to extend accreditation to the Swedish ambassador, and the entire Belarusian embassy was withdrawn from Sweden. Thus, the teddy bear quarreled between two neighboring states.
Many Belarusians advocate for brave and creative Swedes, believing that they managed to achieve their goal - to put Lukashenko in a ridiculous form and to draw public attention to the restriction of human rights and freedom of speech in this country. But there are opponents who believe that the organizers of the action should not have poked 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 put in prison by a dictator.
