Draft:Lyova Bi-2

Lyova Bi-2 (birth name Yegor Mikhailovich Bortnik (Belarusian: Ягор Міхайлавіч Бортнік), also known as Igor Bortnik ; born September 2, 1972, Minsk) is a rock musician, poet, singer and guitarist, one of the two founders and leaders of the group "Bi-2". Having Israeli citizenship, he lives in Spain.

Biography
Yegor Bortnik was born on September 2, 1972 in Minsk. Father - Bortnik Mikhail Vasilyevich (01/20/1943-2010), candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, associate professor, teacher of thermodynamics and statistical physics at the Faculty of Radiophysics and Electronics of the Belarusian State University. His mother - Bortnik Natalya Fedorovna. Sometimes he calls himself the grandson of Arkady Aleksandrovich Kuleshov, a famous poet in Belarus.

He became Leva in his childhood: I lived with my parents in Africa (my father was invited to teach radiophysics at a university in the Congo). One day my dad bought me a lion's fang. I hung it around my neck, and the guys gave me the nickname Lev. I really liked the new name, and now even my mother calls me Lyova. In 1985, Egor Bortnik met another future founder of the Bi-2 group, Alexander Uman (Shura Bi-2), at the Minsk children’s theater studio “Rond”. In this studio, they decided, together with other peers, to create productions in the spirit of the theater of the absurd. After another avant-garde production, the theater was closed, and Shura and Lyova decided that they would be much better able to express themselves in music. Leva explained this choice as follows: “We quickly realized that guys with guitars are very attractive to girls”

Lyova and Shura created the band “Brothers in Arms”, which later changed its name to “Coast of Truth”, and then “Bi-2”. Performing concerts, the group traveled all over Belarus.

In 1991, following Shura, he moved to Israel. He worked as a security guard at a construction site, and the friends played music at the guardhouse. Later, Leva served in the Israeli army and worked as a computer graphic artist. After Shura went to stay with relatives in Australia at the end of 1993, the Bi-2 band actually broke up for almost 5 years (although at first Lyova continued to work on new songs, talking with Shura by phone). But in February 1998, Leva also moved to Australia. There he joined the group “Chiron” (where Shura played), which needed another guitarist. Soon the Bi-2 band was revived; in the same 1998, their first numbered album “Sexless and Sad Love” appeared. By the fall of 1998, the group also prepared the album “And the Ship Sails On”. It was never published, but songs from it ended up on the air of Russian radio stations (the first of them to receive constant rotation on the radio station “Nashe Radio” was the song “Heart”).

In September 1999, Lyova and Shura arrived in Russia, where the Bi-2 group, whose lineup was replenished with Russian musicians, began active concert activity. The following year, the group’s second numbered album, “Bi-2,” was released, which included (but with a different order of tracks and design) songs from the album “And the Ship Sails On.”

In 2000, Lyova Bi-2 starred in Alexey Balabanov’s film “Brother-2” in a cameo, and the group “Bi-2” took part in creating the soundtrack for this film. The song “Nobody Writes to the Colonel” sounded in this blockbuster, made the group famous. The group continued to release new albums, and by 2017 the number of their numbered albums had reached ten.

On May 17, 2017, he was detained by Moscow police at a football match “on suspicion of possession of substances withdrawn from civil circulation.” A bag of marijuana weighing 0.5 grams was seized from him. A day later, the court imposed a fine on Bortnik in the amount of 3,000 rubles for “violating the rules of behavior of spectators during official sports competitions” (Part 1 of Article 20.31 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).

On January 24, 2024, he and other members of the Bi-2 group were detained by Thai police on the island of Phuket. The basis for the detention was the documents incorrectly executed by the organizer, which became the reason for the violation of Thai migration legislation.

As a person who does not have Russian citizenship and entered Thailand with an Israeli passport, he alone was allowed to fly to Israel on January 30, where on January 31 he was met at the airport, among others, by Abbas Gallyamov and Maxim Katz. Maxim Katz said in an interview that he asked for assistance from Vladimir Gusinsky, who, according to Katz, turned directly to Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz. Tel Aviv airport said in an interview with the BBC that he would no longer live in Russia.

Personal life
First wife Irina Makeeva, son Fedor (born 2002).

The second wife is Asya Streicher (born September 24, 1969), former tour manager of the Mumiy Troll bandС днём рождения, Ася Би-2!. Married since October 30, 2009. Sons Aviv (born January 8, 2008), David (born August 30, 2010).

Public position
In May 2023, while on tour in the United States, he condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying that “Putin’s Russia only causes disgust” and “Putin and all his mentally retarded trash destroyed the country,” and also stated that he did not intend to return to Russia. On May 26, 2023, the Russian Ministry of Justice added Bortnik to the list of foreign agents.