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Aleksandr “Schura” Uman from the band Bi-2 (in July 2023 in Portugal)

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Horacio Villalobos/Corbis/Getty Images

Thailand is planning to deport a Russian rock band - but where is currently unclear. The seven musicians from the dissident band Bi-2 were apparently arrested on Wednesday last week after a concert on the holiday island of Phuket. Apparently they didn't have the right working papers - which the band denied in a posting on social media.

On Friday, a Phuket court sentenced the band members to a fine of 3,000 baht (about 78 euros) each. After the payment, the band members were taken into custody by immigration police and taken to the immigration prison in the capital Bangkok, according to the band itself.

But what happens to the band now is unclear. The band announced via Telegram that deportation to Israel was actually planned. At least four of the seven members are reportedly Israeli citizens, including the band's two founders, Aleksandr "Schura" Uman and Yegor "Ljowa" Bortnik. The latter also has an Australian passport, and both are no longer Russian citizens.

But after an intervention by “high-ranking diplomats at the Russian Embassy,” the decision to deport them to Israel was reversed, the band writes. The group members therefore refused to speak to the Russian consul; they are still in the immigration center in a shared cell with 80 people, it is said.

They did not want to appear under the war symbol “Z”.

The rock band Bi-2 has been in the sights of the Russian authorities for years. The band criticized the invasion of Russian troops into neighboring Ukraine. In April 2022, the group refused to perform in front of the pro-war symbol "Z", causing venues across Russia to cancel their performances, and since then the band has only been able to perform abroad. Lead singer Yegor Bortnik has been classified as a "foreign agent" by Russian authorities since May 2023 after he criticized Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin online.

The band assumes that “external pressure” may have played “a significant role” in their imprisonment. "We know that the reasons for this pressure are our creativity, our views, our position," says the statement, which was published on social media such as Telegram.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marija Zakharova commented on the musicians' arrest: "It's no wonder that no one wants the problems that can arise with people who support terrorism."

In Russia they could face “arrest or worse.”

Human rights activists fear that Bi-2 members would face harsh punishments if they were sent back to Russia. "The Thai authorities should immediately release the detained members of Bi-2," says Elaine Pearson, Asia director at the human rights organization Human Rights Watch. "Under no circumstances should they be deported to Russia, where they could face arrest or worse because of their open criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's war in Ukraine."

The Green MP in the European Parliament, Sergey Lagodinsky, calls for EU countries and the USA to get involved. "This is a dangerous precedent," warns Lagodinsky in an interview with SPIEGEL. "Moscow wants to show that it has a long arm that reaches far beyond its borders," explains the MEP. He refers to a law planned in Russia under which the assets of Russians living abroad could be confiscated if they speak out against the war in Ukraine. »Moscow wants to show that Russians are also under state control abroad. That’s the new strategy: intimidation – and revenge.”

mgo/AP/Reuters