Thursday, August 16, 2012

A Fuzzy, Plush KGB

Well now Lukashenko is just looking stupid:

A Swedish advertising agency that air-dropped hundreds of teddy bears carrying pro-human rights messages into Belarus has rejected a summons for questioning by the former Soviet republic's KGB security agency.

Instead, Studio Total offered Tuesday to discuss the matter directly with the country's authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, and invited him to Sweden.

Putin's version of the KGB will stab you with radioactive isotopes and kill you.

Lukashenko's KGB invites you to a meeting you will never leave. And can do nothing if you aren't foolish enough to accept. And the Swedes are a bit cheeky:

"Threatening someone with 'corrective' work if they don't accept your invitations is considered bad manners," the Swedish team wrote in a sarcastic open letter to Lukashenko.

The team said they had received threats by email and telephone since the teddy bear stunt and that "all trails" point to the KGB.

"To sum it up, all these small issues have made us lose our appetite to come and visit you," they wrote, suggesting instead that Lukashenko come to Sweden.

Once the people laugh at you rather than fear you, your edge is gone.

Lukashenko might see a Fuzzy Revolution yet if he keeps trying to fight cuddly teddy bears--and loses.

UPDATE: An excellent point that laughing at a dictator willing to kill you is no path to victory over the dictator. Laughing from the safety of Sweden will surely give dissidents and silent critics of the government in Belorus some comfort. But don't expect too many of them to laugh openly.