Behemoth have been ordered to leave Russia a day after being arrested for having bad visas – which frontman Nergal calls a "pretext."
They were confronted by officers of the nation’s Federal Migration Service ahead of a planned concept in the city of Yekaterinburg.
Last night Nergal reported: “When I said I do not move from the club without the presence of someone from the Polish Embassy, they threatened us with force. We tried to reach to the Polish Embassy – but no one picks up.”
The Polish band were fined 2000 rubles each and ordered to leave Russia “within a reasonable time” at a court hearing this morning.
Nergal tells Znak (via Blabbermouth) of their cell: “It was a very small room and the walls were smeared with faeces. At night, we asked to be taken to the toilet but our request was denied for some reason. So we had to use plastic bottles instead.”
He adds that if their paperwork was wrong it was because Russian authorities gave them incorrect information. “We received the visas at the Russian consulate in Warsaw,” he says. “We were told it was necessary to obtain a business visa. We did everything we were told.
“Now it turned out that it was necessary to get some kind of a ‘humanitarian’ visa, not a business one.”
He hopes Behemoth will be allowed to return in the future to make for the five shows they had to cancel. They play the Download festival at Donington next month.
