Most wanted

Recently I visited a district visa and registration office, whatever its name could be now. I was told that first of all I should fill in a form, which is filled in by everybody visiting the office after the blast.

The questionnaire I was to fill in had a curious title “Questionnaire-explanation”. It means that the document is “voluntary-compulsory”. The questionnaire should be a voluntary affair, and if you do not want, you may not fill it in, while providing explanations is an imperative: “Sir, please give explanation!”

The first part of the questionnaire/explanatory paper consisted of personal questions, and the second had questions. Everyone who visited the Passport Office the to change a passport, registration, to register a foreign guest or for some other reason, was to inform whether he or she knows anything about persons who are engaged in secret excavations; about persons having access to chemical substances; about persons engaged in illegal production of explosive substances; about those who attended the concert on July 3. I answered truthfully all the questions by leaving the document blank. I really do not know anything about the abovementioned categories. To say the truth, the questions are stupid. For instance, my school friend Mr. So-and-so really makes home-made bombs in the night. But none of his friends would learn about that ever. Those who do such things are hiding better than a spy. And if my acquaintance Mr. So-and-so goes to do illegal excavations in the night, he won’t call his friends in the morning saying: “I have unearthed a bomb of the Second World War; and I want to blast it should an opportunity arise”. And if Mr. So-and-so has an access to some substances due to his occupation, he should have been interrogated already. Secret services have been visiting laboratories and scientific institutions the whole week.

However, I wanted to help the investigation very much. And there was a question in the end of the questionnaire, which I could answer providing some information. The authors of the document asked whether I know anything about persons who had been speaking about a possibility of a blast in Minsk, and who are these persons.

As a law-abiding citizen I have written immediately: “Alyaksandr Lukashenka spoke that a blast is possible in his interview to “Komsomolskaya Pravda”. With a sense of deep moral satisfaction after contributing to the investigation I was waiting for reports about a search in Drazdy [Lukashenka’s residence], for instance; or about an interrogation and following detention for three days in a remand prison. About check of an alibi. By the way, the citizen I’ve mentioned was at the concert as well. He plunged into the hell's corner as if he was sure that there was no more danger. This person definitely should have been interrogated at least. Moreover, his place of residence is known, and one needn’t expend energy in searching for him. But the citizen whose words about the blast were exact in detail, for some reason was having fun in the festival “Slavonic Bazaar”. Maybe he has just escaped to Vitsebsk?.. Or is it a bad work of secret services?

It is most likely the latter is true. By the way, in the questionnaire/explanatory note there was no question about a dark-complexioned man, who is searched by law-enforcing agencies, according to an official version. No wonder: there are no dark-complexioned men in our country. They live only in Africa.