Relief in Thailand, after, shortly before midnight, all the musicians of the Russian pop-rock band Bi-2 embarked for Tel-Aviv. Its singer, Igor Bortnik “Liova”, who currently only has an Israeli passport, had been deported hours before. The group had been in the Bangkok irregular immigration detention center for a week, after being detained on the island of Phuket before a concert for not having a work permit.
The group’s managers, as well as several activists and embassies, had been campaigning for days against their alleged deportation to Russia, due to their status as “political dissidents.” Bi-2, a group founded in Minsk during Soviet times, was very popular in the Russian-speaking space during the 1990s. However, he came into conflict with the Russian government two years ago, when, two months after the invasion of Ukraine, he canceled his performance in Omsk, minutes before the concert, when the organizers did not accept that a sign on the stage be covered up. that read “For the president!” A few months later, during a tour of the United States, the group’s singer attacked Vladimir Putin in some interviews.
The group has since said it will not perform in Russia again, although it continues to perform concerts for an audience made up mostly of Russians. Last year, without going any further, in Alicante, Marbella or Lisbon. Ten days ago, in Pattaya, a mecca of sex tourism in Thailand.
When two days later they wanted to perform their planned concert on the island of Phuket, the police intervened. According to the organizers, “due to pressure from the Russian consulate in Phuket, since December.” Bi-2 had already performed on other occasions in Phuket and, according to the concert company, VPI, which admits that the musicians had entered Thailand with a tourist visa. Other times, when there has been a visa problem, they assure that it has been resolved amicably with the police. That is, “with a fine, not with arrests.” The Russian consulate says the police have acted on their own initiative and in accordance with Thai law. This also prohibits foreigners without permission from carrying out certain activities that can be carried out by Thais.
Phuket, furthermore, is not just any place. It is the epicenter of Russian tourism in Thailand, in the same way that Koh Phangan is the epicenter of Israeli tourism. The Bi-2, who sing in Russian, although five of them have Israeli passports (some also Australian), were supposed to perform at the Illuzion hall in the municipality of Patong, a large club where the day after tomorrow, without going any further, they will perform the DJ from Vilanova i la Geltú, David Tort.
The Russian colony is the largest on the island of Phuket and the Thai government has no desire to ruin its relationship with Moscow, especially when the consul himself would apparently have intervened. According to the same sources, he would also have requested the cancellation of the show of two pub comedians, Maxim Galkin and Ruslan Beliy.
It should also be noted that the current Prime Minister, Srettha Thavisin, has even invited Putin to visit Thailand. Although some residents in Phuket may have fled the mobilization two autumns ago, many others are sympathetic to the “special military operation” in Ukraine. The newspaper archives recall that some Ukrainian tourist with symbols of the Azov Battalion, in which many neo-Nazis fight, has been rebuked and attacked by Russians in Phuket. There are also many Ukrainians on the island who refuse to be cannon fodder.
Israeli diplomacy has been the most active in convincing Bangkok not to deport the musicians to Russia. An extreme that, on the other hand, had never been made explicit by the Thai authorities. The mere possibility sparked a campaign by organizations such as Human Rights Watch. Belarusian dissident Svetlana Tijanovskaya had also started collecting signatures, warning about the political persecution that awaited them.
In fact, last year Moscow labeled the vocalist, Leva, a “foreign agent.” And Kremlin spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has most recently accused the group of “advocating terrorism.” The Russian consular in Phuket simply indicated that Bangkok would deport them “to the appropriate place.” In reality, although two of the band members would only have Russian passports, this is enough to enter Israel without a visa.
Bi-2’s latest album, released a couple of years ago, is called “Hallelujah.” They must have exclaimed something very similar this Thursday when they set foot in Tel Aviv. As far as is known, the band’s dissidence and anti-war is limited to the war in Ukraine and does not affect the war being carried out in Gaza by the Israeli army, in which several of them have served.
