Russia cancels participation, broadcast of Eurovision-2017


Russia will not take part in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said on Thursday evening.

Following the official confirmation that Russian Eurovision entrant, Yulia Samoylova, will not be permitted to travel to Kyiv to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, the EBU formally offered two alternative proposals to Channel One in a bid to find a solution that would enable Russia to continue their participation in this year’s event.

“These proposals were to either take part via satellite or to change their chosen artist to one who could legally travel to Ukraine for the duration of the Contest. Sadly both proposals have been rejected by Channel One and they have now announced they do not intend to broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. Unfortunately this means Russia will no longer be able to take part in this year’s competition. We very much wanted all 43 countries to be able to participate and did all we could to achieve this,” the EBU states.

In March, Ukraine banned Yulia Samoylova from entering the country for this year’s competition. According to the Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), the Russian singer violated Ukrainian laws. Samoylova confirmed that she had performed in Crimea soon after the annexation without passing through the border with the Ukrainian mainland, which, as Kyiv states, allows them to impose a travel ban on her.

Frank Dieter Freiling, Chairman of the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group, the event’s steering committee, condemns the Ukrainian authorities’ decision, but stresses that their top priority is ‘to produce a spectacular Eurovision Song Contest’.

The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest was held in the capital of Sweden, Stockholm. Russia’s Sergei Lazarev with the song You Are The Only One  was the odds-on favourite of the show. But it was his tough competitor, Ukrainian singer Jamala who became the winner with the song 1944 dedicated to the tragedy of Crimean Tatars deported by Stalinists.

belsat.eu, following eurovision.tv

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