Pilot: "I do not know Surapin, the Belarusian text was written by a Swede"
Pilot Tomas Mazetti has told Euroradio whether the photos of teddy bear were real and who translated the notes attached to the teddy bears.
Euroradio: Did you contact Anton Surapin or some other Belarusians while getting ready for the action?
Tomas Mazetti: We didn't contact him or anyone else.
Euroradio: Are the teddy bears that can be seen in the photos published by Surapin the same as the ones you threw down?
Tomas Mazetti: They are. The majority of the teddy bears had notes in Belarusian. But some of them had inscriptions in English on the other side.
Euroradio: Where did you learn Belarusian?
Tomas Mazetti: We cannot speak it. A Swedish translator helped us.
Euroradio: Were all the teddy bears the same?
Tomas Mazetti: No. There were many kinds of teddy bears. There were about 800 teddy bears and all of them had different heads and slightly different notes.
Let us remind you that 20-year-old student of the BSU Department of Journalism Anton Surapin published photos of the teddy bears thrown over Ivyanets and Minsk from a Swedish plane on July 4 on his website Belarusian News Photos. He was detained by KGB members on July 13. He is suspected of "assisting in a case of illegal crossing of the border". Surapin claims that he received the photos from an anonymous person by e-mail.
