Subversive Teddy Bear Valued at 10c

The famous ted­dy bear was returned quite bat­tered. His mit­tens came sep­a­rate­ly. Appar­ent­ly, KGB was try­ing to find out if the ted­dy bear was smug­gling some­thing out of Belarus and did a strip search on him.

Stu­dio Total, the Swedish PR com­pa­ny that per­formed the dar­ing pro-democ­ra­cy stunt in Belarus, is closed, the jour­nal­ist and the real estate deal­er involved in the sto­ry are released from KGB jail, the Aus­tralian journalist’s gear is returned, the Swedish embassy in Min­sk has par­tial­ly resumed oper­a­tion. Is the ted­dy bear war over? It may well be. How­ev­er, the les­son for the jour­nal­ists – always make copies of sen­si­tive footage before leav­ing Belarus. Oth­er­wise the sto­ry wouldn’t have come out.