For about two weeks, Belarusian segment of the Internet went nuts over Nekliaev’s revelation that he had brutally killed a cat. During an online Q&A conference, an aspiring presidential candidate was asked whether an episode of a brutal murder of a cat, described in his book “Armaggedon. Dramatic Poem,” was real.

Here’s a direct quotation from the book:

I was ten when I caught and killed a cat. She lived in a barn, homeless. I killed her by holding her hind legs and hitting her against a concrete column. Swinging her to and fro, I was hitting the feline body against the concrete. The cat already had no head, but I was still hitting.

And here’s what Nekliaev said during the conference:

It’s a real fact. Many of the childhood memories are enigma. For example, fits of childish brutality… I had one of those just once, but still I had it. How, why? I couldn’t explain it even to myself. That is why I tried to analyze it in a dramatic poem.

The effect was explosive. Belarusian Greens called for removal of Nekliaev from the race. The Belarusian blogging community blasted with zillions of posts and comments. It’s not surprising this childish act of brutality became probably the most widely discussed politically-related topic on the Belarusian Internet.

By voting for Nekliaev, you will kill a kitten
Internet art: By voting for Nekliaev, you will kill a kitten

Surprisingly, it even provoked the candidate’s aides and Nekliaev himself to respond to all this craziness. Nekliaev even did photoshoots with his cat Basia. But I guess the most amusing clumsy effort to hush down the fuss was when Nekliaev signed a peace memorandum with cat Barsik.

I don’t know what’s gonna be the result of all this madness, but it’s fun to watch.

Nekliaev and cat Barsik