Kremlin hopes Kiev’s Eurovision ban ‘ will be reconsidered’
The Kremlin said Thursday that it hoped Kiev would reconsider its decision to ban a Russian singer from the Eurovision Song Contest over a past performance in Russia- annexed Crimea.
“The decision from our point of view is absolutely unfair, it’s unfortunate. And we hope all the same that it will be reconsidered,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Ukraine’s security service on Wednesday imposed a threeyear entry ban on Russia’s participant Yuliya Samoilova for illegally entering Moscowannexed Crimea to take part in a 2015 gala concert.
The Kremlin hopes Kiev will reverse the decision “ahead of the contest and the Russian participant will be able to take part in this contest,” Peskov said. He slammed Kiev’s decision to ban an “important contestant,” saying this “seriously devalues the upcoming contest.”
Samoilova, who is a wheelchair user, said late Wednesday she remained buoyant and hoped for a change of heart from Kiev. “Overall I’m not upset,” Samoilova told Channel One state- controlled television, which selected her as Russia’s contestant. “I will keep going. I somehow think that everything will change.”
Samoilova added that she could not understand why Ukrainian authorities saw “some kind of threat in a little girl like me.”
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said that responsibility for the decision lies “on the conscience of the organizers” in Ukraine, quoted by Interfax news agency.
A national television channel on Thursday raised the possibility that Russia will not broadcast the contest. A newsreader on Rossiya 24 state television channel said: “Not one of Russia’s national channels will broadcast the contest itself.”
Channel One, which is due to air the contest this year, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The popular tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda on Thursday headlined its front page “Eurohate,” saying the ban was “spitting in the face of defenceless 27- year- old Yuliya Samoilova in a wheelchair.”