Pipsqueaks

I’d like to congratulate you, dear citizens, Belarusian diplomats: you are not just unprofessional.

You are pipsqueaks.

Our country-man Kiryl Silivonchyk was supposed to be set free from the penal colony #14 in Nizhniy Novgorod yesterday. He wasn’t. He was convoyed to the migration prison right from the colony.

I recall: Kiryl Silivonchyk worked in Nizhniy Novgorod as a programmer. He served two years in prison for reposting a message in support of Ukraine. Shortly before release, he received a notification from the Ministry of Justice of Russia. It stated that he had been considered undesirable in this country’s territory.

Silivonchyk apprehended that he might be arrested and sent to the migration prison right after release so he addressed to the Belarusian Consulate in Nizhniy Novgorod. He wrote a letter to the diplomats of his homeland asking to help him leave for Belarus after release. He wrote he had money and would buy the ticket himself. Thus, he only asked for the ordinary consular assistance.

He received a reply in the colony. The Belarusian diplomats informed that the budget did not provide money to send Belarusian citizens home from other countries, so they could not help. This means, they didn’t even read his appeal. So here is the result: Silivonchyk is in jail again, although he has already served his term and is legally free. On the day of his release, the Sormovo district court took the decision on his deportation, and now, according to the Russian laws, Kiryl Silivonchyk can spend up to three months in the migration prison. Herein, he had a ticket to the train and he hoped to get back home and celebrate the New Year together with his close people on the same day.

The Belarusian diplomats had an opportunity to fulfill their professional duties. Instead of licking the boots of the FSB, drinking Russian vodka to wash down the shoe polish, they could have returned the citizen of their country back home – this is all he asked for. However, they appeared so talentless they couldn’t do even this. Then again, if they can’t read, what are we talking about here?

Belarusian diplomats invaded various embassies, consulates, permanent missions, just like cockroaches. The world has enough Godforsaken places where one can blend in with the landscape and rejoice that nobody needs them. However, if a Belarusian citizen emerges within their jurisdiction, it appears a catastrophe. Because nobody has taught these guys how to actually work.

We all are expecting Kiryl to get home soon. Not only his family and friends, but hundreds of ordinary Belarusians, who feel solidarity with their country-man. Our wait will be over someday. And what about you, the residents of the noplacevilles, is there anyone waiting for you in your Homeland? That’s what I mean. Keep idling, pipsqueaks. Just don’t forget to bite after.

Iryna Khalip, specially for charter97.org