TV presenter and comedian Maxim Galkin was denied entry into Indonesia, where he was supposed to have a concert called “Beautiful is not far” on January 27 at the IC Center Bali. The artist spoke about this on his Instagram page.
As Galkin noted, two days before entry, he was approved for a work visa, and “all documents for the performance were in order.” According to the comedian, the order to ban him from entering did not come from the Indonesian authorities, but from the Russian government.
“The reason was stated almost immediately and repeated several times by different border service employees — a letter from the Russian government with a request don't let me into Bali. The letter was shown to me, but, of course, they politely refused me a copy,” the artist wrote.
Earlier it became known about the cancellation of two Galkin concerts in Thailand. There, the comedian added, Russian authorities put pressure on event venue owners who “have strong ties to the Russian consulate and Russian tourism.” In addition, comedian Ruslan Bely’s concerts did not take place in Thailand. Both he and Maxim Galkin are included in the register of “foreign agents.”
The Bi-2 group performed twice in Thailand in January, but after the second concert, seven musicians were detained under the pretext of lacking permission to work in the country. The court in Phuket imposed a fine of three thousand Thai baht (about 7.5 thousand rubles) on each of them. Now the group members are awaiting deportation.