Persistent background tension between Sweden and Belarus culminate with ambassadorial expulsion

Friday, 03 August 2012
Since Belarus cracked down on political activists and opposition since the last Belarusian election, in which Sweden reacted angrily, the Belarusian embattle government has settled and now considered its case with Sweden. The results, the expulsion of Swedish ambassador from the country. Sweden reacted by also ejecting the Belarusian ambassador here too.

The Swedish Foreign, Minister Carl Bildt said during a conference call that "They have drawn accusations against the ambassador without a reason.”
The charges against the Swedish ambassador related to contact with the opposition, something Carl Bildt can not see anything strange. Bildt calls the accusations "ridiculous."

He adds that “the fact that the Swedish ambassador has had contact with the opposition in Belarus is not unusual, but it shows only that Sweden acts in accordance with the policy it pursues,” said as Bildt while adding that there is "no secret."

"There are many ambassadors in Sweden who have had contact with the opposition, "said Bildt, and they have not been expelled from the country.

That decision is widely reported in Sweden as having something to do with the action of a Swedish PR agency, which released an oppositional messages across Belarus.

On 4 July it was reported that an airplane with a Swedish crew dropped teddy bears with dissident messages around Belarus including the capital, Minsk.

The country's Defense Ministry dismissed the incident as a mere "provocation" on the Internet, but President Lukashenko - already heavily criticized both within and outside the country - chose to take the incident as a pretext to purge more managers within its civil service.

Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter, translated from English as follows: "Lukashenko's regime has expelled  the Swedish Ambassador to Belarus for supporting human rights. It shows the regime's true self."
By Scancomark.se Team