Seven members of Bi-2 have been detained in Thailand final week after a present on Phuket island, with authorities citing issues with permits.
In an announcement, the band mentioned it has all the time held live shows “in accordance with native legal guidelines and practices,” including that the present’s native organizer incorrectly stuffed out the paperwork, a minor offense for which they have been every fined about $84 and paid on the spot.
However after the listening to, the band members have been detained by the Thai immigration police and brought to Bangkok, the place the authorities are anticipated to rule on their deportation.
“Now we have not been offered with any extra costs,” the band representatives mentioned in a message shared on Vkontakte, Russia’s model of Fb. “The scenario and the noise round it counsel that outdoors strain performed a major function in our detention. We all know that the explanations for this strain are our creativity, our views, our place.”
Opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov, who has been in contact with the band, mentioned that Russian authorities have been placing strain on their Thai counterparts to deport the musicians to Russia.
“With all of the procedural violations … it turns into clear that this course of is being managed from Moscow,” Russian music producer and journalist Mikhail Kozyrev mentioned in an interview with the unbiased Russian-language channel TV Rain. “That is such a demonstrative reprisal to reprimand all of the artists who selected to not help the struggle. The message right here is: ‘We are going to discover you and get you, wherever you might be.’”
Russia’s consul normal in Phuket, Vladimir Sosnov, advised the Russian state information company RIA Novosti that consular officers had not been concerned within the deportation course of.
Based on Sosnov, 5 of the seven band members maintain Russian passports, whereas one entered Thailand on an Israeli passport and one other with an Australian passport. “Based on native legal guidelines, deportation is carried out by direct flight to the nation the place the passport was issued,” the company added.
Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for Russia’s International Ministry, mentioned she just isn’t stunned that antiwar artists are going through points whereas touring overseas, and sought to attract a connection to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Nobody needs the issues that may come up with individuals who sponsor terrorism,” she advised Podyem media. “The terrorist assaults dedicated by Zelensky’s ghouls horrify the entire world.”
There is no such thing as a recognized authorized case launched towards the Bi-2 members in Russia, so Moscow had no foundation to request their extradition. However Bi-2 supporters worry that if they’re deported to Russia, they may face felony costs stemming from their earlier antiwar statements.
For Thailand, the case is diplomatically difficult. A number of members of the band are twin Israeli-Russian residents, which permits them to contest the vacation spot nation in case they’re deported. Two different members of the band aren’t Russian residents, in response to the Bi-2 assertion, and can’t be deported to Russia.
Bi-2, whose founding members hail from Belarus, is likely one of the most profitable Russian-language rock bands because the finish of the Soviet Union. In 2022, its members refused to carry out at a venue that was adorned with a pro-war and pro-Putin banner. Their live shows in Russia have been finally canceled, and the band went into self-exile.
“I’m not coming again to Russia,” lead singer Yegor Bortnik, who makes use of the stage identify Lyova, wrote in a touch upon his Instagram web page final yr. “The one factor Putin’s Russia evokes proper now could be disgust.”
Mainstream artists who remained in Russia after the February 2022 invasion had little selection however to observe the unstated rule of supporting the struggle or, at the least, no discussing it. Those that left the nation misplaced report offers, studios and a part of their viewers however have had the liberty to proceed talking out towards the struggle. Many discovered their acts can thrive overseas even with out Russian venues or discovered new audiences of like-minded Russians who additionally fled.
However just lately some live shows have been banned in international locations that emerged as Russian diaspora hubs, elevating fears that Moscow is pressuring governments to chop off dissident artists.
Earlier than the Bi-2 detentions, Thailand canceled exhibits of two antiwar Russian artists, stand-up comedians Ruslan Beliy and Maxim Galkin, each of whom have been labeled as “overseas brokers” by the Russian authorities, a designation used to focus on many opposition politicians, artists, journalists, and activists.
Galkin, who typically criticizes Russian authorities and the struggle in Ukraine in his monologues, was just lately denied entry to Indonesia, the place he deliberate a present.
“The rationale was given nearly instantly and repeated a number of occasions by completely different border service staff — a letter from the Russian authorities asking to not let me into Bali,” Galkin wrote on his Instagram web page.
Galkin and different artists have additionally mentioned that organizers in Dubai have requested Russian artists to tone down any pro-Ukrainian rhetoric.
