Anton Suryapin

Who is Anton Suryapin?

Anton Suryapin is a Belarusian photojournalist. On 13 July 2012, he was detained after publishing pictures of a protest by a Swedish advertising company in which teddy bears were airdropped into the country with slogans advertising freedom of speech.

The teddy bears were dropped on 4 July 2012 by Studio Total, a Swedish advertising firm. The group called the mission "Teddybear Airdrop Minsk 2012". A plane piloted by Tomas Mazetti took off from a town near Kaunas, Lithuania, and illegally entered Belarusian airspace, proceeding over the town of Ivyanets. The group then released 1,000 teddy bears holding cards and banners with protest slogans. When the Belarusian government denied that the incident had taken place, Studio Total released 90 minutes of footage of the flight, which Radio Free Europe reported that they had confirmed with experts had not been doctored. On 26 July, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko acknowledged the drop had occurred as reported.

Following the drop, Suryapin posted photographs on his website that he said had been e-mailed to him by an Ivyanets resident.