Anti-Putin rock band Bi-2, back on stage in Warsaw, calls for liberating Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir “Putin must gather his orcs and leave Ukraine,” said the singer of the group Bi-2 on Saturday. The Russian-Belarusian protest group was detained for a week in January in Thailand and threatened with expulsion to Russia.

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 (Poland) on Saturday March 16, 2024. They still appeared combative after being detained in January in Thailand and threatened with deportation to Russia, where the Kremlin considers them “a foreign agent.

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. He will soon be in Dublin (Ireland), London (GB), but also Riga (Latvia), Konaev (Kazakhstan), Palanga (Lithuania) and Tallinn (Estonia), to defend his latest album Hallelujah and his protest ideas.

“Putin must leave Ukraine,” says singer

“We have become hostages of Russian history“, the singer, Egor Bortnik, 51, co-founder of the group, testified for AFP before a sold-out concert in the Polish capital. Known by his stage name Lyova, he claimed not to be “against war“: “on the contrary, I am for war. I just want Ukraine to free its own territory“Russian President Vladimir”Putin must round up his orcas and leave Ukraine” he added, repeating a derogatory term frequently used by Ukrainians to refer to Russian soldiers.

The group 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.

Arrested in January and held for a week in Thailand

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.