Lithuania's official: I never accused the Estonians for teddy bear scandal
22.08.2012, 14:44Arvydas Anusauskas, chairman of the Lithuanian Parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence (NSGK) says he was misinterpreted over the role of Estonians in missing the teddy bear plane from Sweden.
"I have never given an interview or made a statement on this issue, and I definitely have not placed the blame on Estonians. However, I assume responsibility for those hastily outspoken words of mine in a radio discussion. I am sorry for misinterpretation that happened. I have pointed that out publicly, yet the printed media has not reacted to that," he said.
"I would also disagree with the statement in media that "the ruling Conservatives keep to the position of looking at the issue as Alexander Lukashenka's provocation in order to undermine the credibility of Lithuania in the eyes of its Western partners." Neither I nor my fellow party members have ever said anything like that, as Regnum.ru reported. I also do not believe that the opposition parties, according to the reports, said that "the campaign of human rights activists from Sweden was carried out with Lithuania knowing about it." Speculations that this was said at a NSGK sitting are misleading. In the first place, our sittings are closed and the material of them is not made public," the NSGK chairman said.
As reported, Swedish advertising agency Studio Total in July flew a small private plane over Belarusian airspace, dropping stuffed toy bears with messages of free speech.