Seven members of the Bi-2 rock group, who openly condemned Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, are being held in Thailand and may be extradited to Russia, where they fear they will face persecution.
The group's lawyer, who asked not to be named, told Current Time that Russian Consul-General Vladimir Sosnov on January 30 visited the immigration center in Bangkok, where the rock group's members are being held, after which agreements reached earlier that four of the band members who hold Israeli citizenship would be deported to Israel were cancelled.
Israeli media reports said earlier in the day that the four members of Bi-2 would be deported to Israel on January 30.
The lawyer said that plane tickets for the four Israeli citizens had been bought earlier, but after Sosnov's visit, all the musicians were left in a common cell for 80 persons, where they have to sleep on the floor.
Bi-2's Telegram channel said the musicians refused to talk to Sosnov.
The group was founded in 1988 in the then-Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus in the wake of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the group's two main members, Aleksandr Uman and Igor Bortnik, continued to work with various musicians joining the band for years in Australia, Britain, and Israel, before settling in Russia.
After Moscow launched its ongoing invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, band members openly condemned Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
Last year, the group left Russia and settled in Israel.
The seven musicians were detained on January 25 over what the Thai authorities said were "flawed documents," and "performing without a work permit."
They were each fined $84 and handed over to the immigration police.
Media reports said earlier that Sosnov was personally working on the deportation of the band members to Russia, where they may face persecution for their anti-war position.
Russian lawmaker Andrei Lugovoi, who was suspected of poisoning Russian security service defector Aleksandr Litvinenko with a radioactive substance in London in 2006, wrote on Telegram on January 30 that the Bi-2 group "will entertain cellmates" if extradited to Russia.
The Ynet newspaper in Israel reported that two members of the group hold Australian and U.S. passports. According to Ynet, after the Israeli Foreign Ministry intervened in the situation, Thai authorities agreed to deport four members of the group who have Israeli citizenship to Israel.