What is also interesting and surprising to me is this. It is no secret to anyone that the authorities are under terrible suspicion of involvement in these events. When such suspicions arise, the authorities should dig into the earth. They must quickly, efficiently, and convincingly refute these suspicions. And not with words, which they always do very energetically, but with direct facts. But the authorities are presenting us so far with some indirect arguments that we are asked to take on faith. Nothing else has been presented to society, journalists, or our commission.

O.Ch.: As far as can be understood, the authorities do not favor your commission with attention.

S.K.: I would be glad if the existence of our commission prompted the authorities to take some energetic actions. But so far this is not visible. The status of a public commission is apparently not high enough for the authorities. Let me remind you that the question of creating a parliamentary commission was raised three times in the Duma, and the Duma rejected the proposal to create a commission three times. True, not by a very significant majority of votes, but it rejected it. This means the Duma does not give a damn about the authority of the official government.

O.Ch.: State structures do not want to make contact with you?

S.K.: Not exactly. Unfortunately, we cannot request any secret information. Nor non-secret information either. Formally, our requests are not ignored by the Prosecutor General's Office, the FSB, or the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Answers arrive promptly. But in essence, all of these are formal brush-offs. The only department that conscientiously answered our questions was the Ministry of Education.