US Ally Under Fire for Helping Putin Hunt Down Anti-War Russians Abroad

The arrest in Thailand of a Russian rock band critical of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has raised fears that the Kremlin's reach of its crackdown on dissent is spreading beyond its borders.

A former American diplomat is among those who have called for the U.S. State Department to call on its ally to release the members of the Bi-2 group, detained by Thai immigration authorities in Phuket for working without a permit.

The group is one of the most successful Russian rock banks of the last 30 years and it has used its platform to condemn the war in Ukraine. Its lead singer, Igor Bortnik, has been labeled a "foreign agent"—the designation by Russian authorities introduced in a crackdown on criticism of the war in Ukraine—after criticizing Putin online.

In May 2023, the band's singer Igor Bortnik wrote on his Instagram that he would not return to Russia, saying, "everything that Putin's Russia causes now is only disgust."

The band's seven members were arrested on January 24 for unauthorized shows while touring Phuket, an island in southern Thailand popular with Russian tourists. The band said on its Facebook page said it faced deportation and that "outside pressure played a significant role in our detention" amid concerns their arrest was connected to the Kremlin's influence, although there is no proof that Moscow was involved.

"This is really serious. We cannot allow Putin to arrest people all over the world," posted Michael McFaul, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, on X on Wednesday. "Thailand is an ally of the U.S., the State Department needs to be fighting this—could become a very bad precedent."

Newsweek has contacted Thailand's Foreign Ministry, the U.S. State Department and the band for comment.

The post was shared by U.S.-born financier and activist, Bill Browder, who was once based in Russia before his firm, Hermitage Capital, fell foul of the Russian authorities. "This is totally outrageous. Western governments should put huge pressure on Thailand not to return these innocent musicians to Russia to face prison (or even worse), " he wrote.

Human Rights Watch said of concern was that three band members do not have dual citizenship and traveled to Thailand with Russian passports and they could face persecution if Bangkok deports them to Russia. Four of the seven have Israeli passports, one of whom also has Australian citizenship.

Bortnik, has left Thailand for Israel, according to a post on the band's Facebook account on Tuesday, while the rest remain "in a migration prison in a cramped cell for 80 people."

Russian economist Konstantin Sonin, a Kremlin critic who is a professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, posted on X: " S.O.S. It didn't look serious at first, but now developed into a major crisis for a small group of innocent people," he wrote. "The popular group is targeted because they are quite openly anti-war and are, well, popular."