Leva Bi-2 flew from Thailand to Israel. Six more musicians remain in migration prison

The leader of the Bi-2 group, Yegor Bortnik (Leva), flew from Thailand to Israel, Mediazona reports, citing the group’s lawyer.

The remaining members of the group, as reported in the official Bi-2 telegram channel, were denied “a previously agreed flight to Israel.” They remain in a migration prison in Thailand.

Earlier, the band's lawyer told Mediazona that Russia demanded the deportation of three musicians who have only one citizenship - Russian.

There are seven detainees in total: six members of the Bi-2 group and session musician Gleb Kolyadin , who performed with them. Four of the detainees, including both leaders of the group, Leva and Shura (Alexander Uman), have Israeli citizenship, and Shura also has Australian citizenship. A lawyer who spoke with Mediazona said that Israel and Australia are ready to take their citizens. In a message published after the musicians’ arrest on their Telegram channel, it was separately noted that Lyova and Shura do not have Russian citizenship.

• Seven members of the Bi-2 group were detained on January 24 after a concert in Phuket due to “incorrectly executed documents by the organizers.” The musicians themselves noted that they had repeatedly held concerts in Thailand and did so in accordance with local laws.
• Organizers later released a statement confirming that the musicians had been given tourist visas, which "resulted in a violation of Thai immigration laws."
• As a result, the court fined the musicians, and then they were sent to a migration police detention center to await a decision on deportation. As journalist Mikhail Kozyrev said , the group members were transported to Bangkok and kept in the heat in an open-air cell, their phones taken away.
• Later, representatives of the group reported that on January 29, the Thai authorities decided to deport the musicians to Israel, after which they bought tickets, but under pressure from “high-ranking diplomats from the Russian consulate” this decision was canceled. The group members themselves refused to communicate with the Russian consul.
• According to one version , the Consul General of the Russian Federation in Phuket, Vladimir Sosnov, personally demanded that the group be deported to Russia. The Russian Ambassador to Thailand, Evgeny Tomikhin, responded to this by telling Komsomolskaya Pravda: “It is not our practice to dictate to someone.”
• After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Bi-2 opposed the war, and Yegor Bortnik was declared a “foreign agent” by the Ministry of Justice in May 2023.