Two Swedish journalists spend night at Minsk airport

The journalists arrived at the airport on the evening of September 21, human rights activist Tatstsyana Ravyaka reports. They applied for accreditation of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs when they were still in Sweden. Having arrived in Minsk, they phoned a representative of the Ministry. He said that their accreditation certificates would be delivered to the airport on September 22 at 10 a.m. and they would be granted visas afterwards.

However, their accreditation certificates did not arrive on September 22 and a representative of "Belavia" told the journalists that they had been refused visas. They were offered an opportunity to go back to Sweden and use the flight Minsk-Riga-Stockholm for it, Radio Liberty reports.

The Belarusian authorities have never welcomed foreign journalists during election campaigns, Tatstsyana Ravyaka said. Swedish journalists are attracting additional attention now due to the current diplomatic conflict and the teddy bear landing incident.