The rockers of the Russian-Belarusian group Bi-2, famous in Russia for their opposition to the invasion of Ukraine, returned to the stage in Warsaw on Saturday evening, still combative having been detained in January in Thailand and threatened with deportation to Russia.
Formed in the 1980s in Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union, the group left Russia in protest against the Ukraine offensive and has since performed in countries with large Russian-speaking communities. “We have become hostages of Russian history,” explained the singer, Egor Bortnik, 51, co-founder of the group, before a concert in the Polish capital.
Known by his stage name “Lyova”, he claimed not to be “against the war”: “on the contrary, I am for the war. I just want Ukraine to free its own territory.” “Russian President Vladimir Putin must round up his orcs and leave Ukraine,” he added, repeating a derogatory term frequently used by Ukrainians to refer to Russian soldiers.
The band members previously played Thursday in Vilnius, Lithuania, where they met Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who lives in exile there, and supporters of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opponent who died last month. last in an Arctic prison.
The group was arrested in January in Phuket, Thailand, for a work visa problem according to Thai authorities, who then raised the possibility of deportation to Russia. The affair had aroused concern and mobilization among Russian opponents living abroad.
The organizers of their tour had claimed that the group had been issued tourist visas in error, accusing the Russian authorities of wanting to cancel their concerts. After a week of detention, the group, which includes seven members, some of whom have Israeli and Australian nationality in addition to Russian citizenship, was released and then reached Israel.
