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Swedish foreign ministry denies involvement in teddy bear stunt

Sweden's foreign ministry and embassy in Minsk have nothing to do with the drop of teddy bears over Belarus from a foreign plane, the ministry's spokesman, Anders Jorle, told BelaPAN on Thursday.

"After contacting our embassy in Minsk, I can assure you that neither the embassy nor the Swedish foreign ministry was involved in the teddy bear stunt," Mr. Jorle said.

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Alyaksandr Lukashenka accused the Swedish embassy of involvement in the stunt.

"When we began to investigate—and the ambassador shouldn't fidget and claim that he is defending democracy here—[it turned out that] those who had come and made preparations for the violation of the border had worked together with the embassy," Mr. Lukashenka said. "We have evidence of this. Investigators have produced it."

The role of the Swedish embassy in the incident is yet to be investigated, he said.