Vilnius - The Swedish plane that dropped teddy bears with slogans supporting freedom of speech attacked to them over the territory of Belarus in July violated the Lithuanian border because of Estonians, Arvydas Anusauskas, chairman of the Lithuanian parliament committee on security and defense, said.
One small mistake decides a lot of things. In my view, a mistake was made because planes on radar screens and their speed are determined technically,” Anusauskas said in an interview with the Lithuanian radio station ini Radijas on Saturday.
Anusauskas said the Swedish plane was not identified and radio communication was not established with it. The Estonians described the plane as “unidentified,” and when the plane returned to the Lithuanian space it was labeled as “identified”, whereas it should have been labeled as “unidentified,” he said.
If a plane labeled as “unidentified” appeared in the Lithuanian airspace, a system launching the fighters stationed in Siauliai would have worked, Anusauskas said.
When asked who is to blame Anusauskas said: “What can I say? It was the Estonians’ shift… There are Estonians, Lithuanians, and Latvians in Karmelava, and it was the Estonians’ shift. What can we do? We can’t do anything to Estonian offices.”
Anusauskas also said the circumstances of the incident have already been determined and it is now time to evaluate the actions taken by the Lithuanian authorities. “We already have all information. An investigation needs to begin,” he said.
A plane carrying two Swedes invaded the Belarusian airspace and dropped teddy bears near Minsk in early July. The purpose of the action was to protect freedom of speech. The plane then returned to Sweden through Lithuania.
