In its turn, Sweden sends out two Belarus diplomats.
Carl Bildt, the Foreign Minister of Sweden, has said on his Twitter that
“Lukashenka regime has expelled Swedish Ambassador to Belarus for being too supportive of human rights. Outrageous. Shows nature of regime.”
Several minutes later, Mr. Bildt noted:
“We have said that the new Belarus ambassador to Sweden not welcome and have asked two other diplomats to leave.”
In his official statement, Carl Bildt says sending out Stefan Eriksson is a rude violation of norms of relations between two state.
He calls the accusations against the ambassador groundless and mentions that Sweden has never concealed supporting democracy and human rights in Belarus.
In its turn, Sweden informed Belarusian ambassador that the presence of new ambassador to Sweden is not welcomed and two Belarus embassy representatives are going to be sent out.
Belarusian Foreign Ministry stated that
“Belarusian part does not expell the Swedish ambassador. The decision on not extending his accreditation was made.”
“Stefan Eriksson has been in Belarus for 7 years, and all this time his work was aimed not at establishing, but at ruining bilateral relations. The decision is the part of our bilateral relations. If the Swedish party intends to aggravate the situation, we will have to react in an appropriate way,” said FM press service.
Stefan Eriksson has been working in Minsk since 2005.He is one of the best European experts on Belarus.
He has actively supported Belarusian culture: he personally translated some of works by Vasil Bykau and Uladzimier Arlou into Swedish and helped to bring Belarusian rock bands to Swedish stages.
Swedish policy towards Belarus has been aimed at support of democracy and human rights.Sweden supports the only Belarusian-language TV channel Belsat and European Humanities University, an independent Belarusian university which is currently in exile in Vilnius.
Swedish singer Loreen, the winner of Eurovision Song Contest 2012, performed at Belarusian state arts festival Slavianski Bazar and — to big displeasure of officials — met with the imprisoned human rights defender Alies Bialiacki's wife.The meeting took place at the Swedish embassy in Minsk.
The last event that probably broke the camel’s back was bear bombing performed by two Swedish pilots who entered Belarusian air space unnoticed and dropped teddy bears with pro-democracy slogans over Minsk.
Seemingly, it was an initiative of a group of individuals, with no involvement of the Swedish state. Yet Lukashenkist ideologists called for “punishment of Sweden”.
Several days ago, Sovietskaya Belorussiya, the newspaper of the Presidential Administration, accused Mr. Ericsson of being “too active”.
Sending out Stefan Eriksson may be the beginning of a new diplomatic war.The previous one occurred in spring, 2012. Then official Minsk requested a Polish diplomat and a representative of European Commission to leave Belarus for a consultation. In its turn the EU recalled all European ambassadors from Minsk.
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