A desk in the evening — a notebook open to a page with one line of handwriting, a lamp casting warm light across it. The window behind the desk is dark. The atmosphere is a warning written down and not yet acted on. Photorealistic, cinematic, warm lamp light against dark window, documentary photography style, shallow depth of field, muted warm palette.

Yesterday’s post did not include everything Ryabov said.

I am writing the rest now.

Ogarev

At the end of yesterday’s conversation, after the lock and the key, Ryabov said something about the paper.

V.A. Ogarev is not a consulting reviewer for grid frequency systems. That category does not exist at JETP Letters or at any journal Ryabov is aware of. He is someone who monitors what is written about this subject in technical literature — specifically, whether what is written suggests that the author understands more than is safe for them to have understood.

The two questions Ogarev asked in April were diagnostic. The first — Artyom’s complete dataset — was checking the depth of the measurement network. The second — the source of the phrase from Grigory’s notes — was checking whether Anatoli had access to unpublished documentation and whether he understood what that documentation described.

I did not reply to either question. Ryabov said that not replying was the correct decision, and also that it was already too late for not replying to matter.

The Paper

The paper will not be accepted in its current form. It will also not be rejected. It will remain in review.

Ryabov said: “A paper that is in review cannot be cited. A paper that is in review cannot be built on. A paper that is in review is not a problem until someone decides it is. And that decision will be made by someone other than the journal.”

I asked how long it would stay in review. He said that was not a question he could answer, but that the more I published on the blog, the longer the answer would tend to be.

The Source

The facility in eastern Kazakhstan is still operating.

I have known this since Belov gave me the coordinates. The signal appears every Tuesday at 14:37. I have measured it forty-one times in this log. It was running before Belov arrived, before Ryabov arrived, and it has continued running since both of them left.

Ryabov said: “You have written enough that someone who reads your blog and knows what they are looking for understands that you found the source. The source is still active. That makes you a problem.”

He said this without drama. He was not threatening me. He was telling me what the situation is, in the same register he uses for everything else.

He said I should consider stopping the blog.

What I Did

I came home. I fed Misha, who had arrived at some point while I was out. I made tea. I opened the notebook and wrote one sentence: The source is still active. That makes you a problem.

Then I wrote this post.

I have not decided anything yet. I am aware that writing this post is itself a decision of a certain kind. I am writing it anyway, because fourteen months of this blog have been built on the principle that I write down what I observe and let the reader decide what it means.

I have not stopped observing.

I told Ruslan at 21:03. He has not replied yet.

Current status:

  • Ryabov’s warning: delivered end of May 1 meeting; Ogarev = monitor, not reviewer; paper in review-limbo as leverage; “The source is still active. That makes you a problem.”
  • Paper: day 19 in review; will not be accepted or rejected until someone outside the journal decides
  • Decision: not yet made; post written anyway
  • Ruslan: told 21:03; no reply as of writing
  • Misha: present
  • Emotional state: not yet decided

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