Members of the music group Bi-2 were arrested by Thai police last week and authorities are threatening to deport them to Russia. Exiled Russian artists are not safe anywhere.
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It is an arrest that can be described as excessive zeal by the local Thai police after a concert in the seaside resort of Phuket in the south of the country. The musicians of a Russian rock group have been arrested and detained, a police source told – on January 24. The government even planned to deport them to their country of origin, Russia. They are accused of appearing on stage without a work visa.
A fairly common situation in Thailand, it is generally resolved by paying a large fine after a short night in prison. But this time, Thai police are threatening to deport members of the Russian-Belarusian group Bi-2 to Moscow. It is one of the most decorated groups in Russia, but is considered one by the Kremlin “Foreign agent“. A designation reserved for figures who criticize Vladimir Putin’s policies. Since then, several human rights organizations have contacted the Thai government. They point out that the members of Bi-2 face at least a prison sentence if repatriated to Russia.
The Thai government is now under strong diplomatic pressure from several countries. Above all, Israel, as four of the seven members of Bi-2 have an Israeli passport. The group’s singer Igor Bortnik, the Kremlin’s main target, was also exfiltrated to Tel Aviv on the night of January 30 and is therefore no longer under threat. But when Israeli diplomats attempted the same operation with the other musicians, Thai authorities refused to release them.
A blacklist of artists created by the Kremlin
Russia is also putting pressure on the Thai authorities. Shortly after the intervention of members of the Israeli embassy, Russian diplomats showed up at the Thai police compound. This intervention in Thailand finally convinced exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Kozyrev that the Kremlin has not given up its hunt for opposition artists, wherever they are in the world. “Maria Zakharova, the current Foreign Minister, expressed the wish that these dissidents be sent home as soon as possible because she accused them of supporting terrorism. This is all part of a special operation that we can compare it with “political revenge, against these artists who are against Putin and against the war”explains the journalist.
According to an anonymous statement released by the GuardianThe Thai authorities were even presented with a blacklist of artists that the Kremlin would like to get back. The latter have already sanctioned artists who were openly against the war. In particular, they decided to cancel the shows of Maxim Galkin and Ruslan Beliy, two comedians very popular in Russia. The NGO Amnesty International condemned this witch hunt that has been carried out by Russia for many years and has intensified since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict. An issue that is a priority for Vladimir Putin given the pressure being exerted on the Thai government today.
