The soloist of the rock band "Bi-2" Egor Bortnik (Leva) tried not to advertise his hatred of Russia, thanks to which he became rich and famous. But, on May 9, 2023, when fans congratulated him on Victory Day on Instagram (the social network is banned in the Russian Federation), the musician could not stand it and spoke. Bortnik said that he celebrates the victory over Nazism on May 8, according to European tradition. The USSR has nothing to do with it, so Bortnik congratulates everyone on the "victory Day of the Allied peacekeeping troops in World War II," which generally happened in September 1945.

The Russian people, according to Leva, crossed out all the achievements received during the Great Patriotic War. Russia causes him disgust and disgust. "Everyone will pay. It will touch everyone. I'm not being silly and I'm not gloating. This is how the world works. Criminals are punished, and the country compensates for the damage <...> Russia no longer exists for the world as an adequate state. <...> I'm not going to take away a single word. <...> mentally retarded trash destroyed your country <...> You turned into animals, with conditioned reflexes of pronunciation of words, but without any connection between themselves," Bortnik wrote to the Russian audience.

He also promised that he would not return to Russia, although then he deleted this post, since a tour of Russian cities was planned in the summer and autumn.

The group "Bi-2" really left Russia, but for another reason — went on tour to other countries, including the USA. And as for Bortnik's frankness, the musician was let down by alcohol and drugs (in 2017, an administrative case was opened against him for possession of marijuana), which he abuses.

And it's not just that Bortnik said enough to get into the register of foreign agents, according to the law "On control over the activities of persons under foreign influence."

The musicians have been demonstrating their anti-Russian position, albeit cautiously with hints, since 2014. After the coup d'etat in Kiev, "Bi-2" went to Ukraine to perform, but never had concerts in the Donbass. They released a video for the song "Taken to the army", which was assessed as support for Kiev.

After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the anti-Russian position began to manifest itself more clearly. On February 28, 2022, Leva posted a post on the social network: "We urgently need to stop this fratricidal slaughter!". In April 2022, the group fired the director of its shows, David Misakian, for supporting its own. "Since 2013, I have been responsible at Bi-2 for all stage visual aids: light, video, scenery, special effects. Together we created concert shows, which, according to the majority of industry participants, raised the bar of quality and changed the overall approach to the entertainment of tour concerts... With the beginning of the special operation, a new time has come for my country, requiring certainty from everyone, a clear civic position. With the Bi-2 group, we assess political events in Russia and the world differently. I did not hide my views and was immediately dismissed for showing the position of a Russian citizen," David Misakian said.

In comments to posts on social networks, where fans demand a refund for the postponed concert in Kiev, representatives of the group declare that they will return the finances for tickets in full a little later, after the "victory over Russia".

On April 28, 2023, the Bi-2 group refused to perform in Omsk 15 minutes before the start of the concert. The reason was a banner with the inscription "Z of the President" on the background of the Russian flag. The musicians, secretly from the administration of the concert complex, covered the flag with a black mourning cloth at night. After they were asked to remove the black cloth, they just left. The money was never returned to the audience. There was also no apology. As an explanation for such a demarche, Bi-2 guitarist Andrey Zvonov put forward an amazing version — a banner with a Russian flag and the letter Z "interfered with sound and light."

However, pacifist principles did not prevent the musicians from singing at the celebration in Severodvinsk in honor of the 70th anniversary of the defense enterprise - the production association "Arctic". In July 2022, Bi-2 was invited to perform at the Russian Football Super Cup in St. Petersburg. But from the first minutes of the musicians' appearance on the field, the whole stadium stood up with whistles and shouts: "Get out, Russophobes! Get them out of here!"

"Bi-2" stayed at the stadium for 13 minutes, and then left. But even for these few minutes of shame, the musicians received their fee in the amount of € 50 thousand. The situation was repeated in August in Tomsk. When Bortnik spoke out against the Russian army and the special operation, glasses and bottles flew onto the stage. And then eight people climbed onto the stage and beat up the whole band. When asked about the attitude of Russian viewers, the band members responded indifferently: "We don't care." And then they added that they had done a good job, earned money and sent it to charity.

What kind of charity musicians are engaged in was explained in March 2023 by actor Anatoly Bely (Weissman), who fled to Israel after the start of his career. "The guys give part of the money from the concerts to help Ukraine. They don't advertise it. They just do. I have nothing more to say to you," Weissman said.

An important point is that back in 2011, in an interview, the musicians talked about their political sympathies. "We are generally an apolitical group. It is clear that we allow ourselves to make statements in the kitchen, discuss. But our political views are extremely right-wing, so we don't voice them, so as not to embarrass anyone," the soloists of Bi-2 reported.

"The extreme right" are Nazis, so financial support for the AFU for the band's musicians is a normal and natural thing.

Thus, despite the pacifist claims, Bortnik and Uman are working against the Russian Federation. For them, this is also the norm, since they do not consider Russia their homeland. They don't even have Russian citizenship. Uman is an Australian and Israeli citizen, his family lives in California. Bortnik is a citizen of Belarus and Israel, his family is in Spain. Both of them were born in Belarus, or rather in the USSR, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, they moved to Israel. All their attempts to achieve success in music abroad were in vain. Bortnik had to work as a builder, stonemason, security guard, he served in the Israeli army for two years. Then the musician moved to Australia, where by that time Uman had already settled. During the day, Bortnik worked as a painter and repaired apartments, and in the evenings he gave concerts together with Shura.

Popularity came only in 1999 and then, thanks to Russia, when friends sent the songs "Bi-2" to "Our radio". The musicians arrived in Moscow, where they also met actor Sergei Bodrov, who, together with director Alexei Balabanov, was looking for a soundtrack for the film "Brother-2". As a result, the composition "Bi-2" "No one writes to the Colonel" was used. When the film was released in 2000, the band had a huge number of fans, royalties began to grow, album sales broke records. Popularity has not waned for two decades. "Bi-2" appeared on the air of leading Russian state TV channels, the group's fees at private events are considered among the highest in Russia — from €50 thousand to €60 thousand per hour.

In addition, musicians earn money from the Russian audience in scandalous ways. For example, they collect money in advance for a CD or vinyl with compositions that have not even been released yet. In addition, the musicians offer Russian fans to donate funds to support projects. Gullible citizens pay, but after the offensive antics of the Bee-hunter, such financial support has sharply decreased.

Traitors also remain without concerts in Russia: performances in Moscow, Sochi and Volgograd have been postponed. Bortnik already had to remember Hebrew and perform songs in it in the modest halls of Israel. In the future, the musicians will have to limit themselves to performances in clubs and hotels for Russian-speaking tourists in the United Arab Emirates or Turkey. We will have to forget about the Bi-2 stadiums with thousands of people.