Russian government officials deeply upset as Ukraine beat Russia in the campest competition imaginable (Eurovision 2016)

[Adar]

The Eurovision song contest is an obsession among gays in Europe and a popular guilty pleasure among many others. But no one take the contest more seriously than Vladimir Putin and his government in Kreml. When Russia won the contest in 2008 Vladimir Putin even took a personal interest in the organization of the event in Moscow the following year and Azerbaijan learned about the political importance of voting in favor of Russia in 2012 when they gave the Russian entry 0 points Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a personal meeting with Azerbaijani officials 3 days layer and publicly stated that "Ten points were stolen from us, well not from us but from our participant,".

This year the Russian entry "You are the only one" by pop star Sergey Lazarev was one of the highest rated songs in the competition.


But in the end they were beaten by Ukrainian singer/songwriter Jamala with her entry "1944" detailing the oppression of the Tartars by the Soviet Union as well as the Australian entry "Sound of Silence" performed by former school teacher Dami Im.



Obviously the matter of who wins the Eurovision is not a major political issue (unless you are a Russian client state in which you better vote for Russia). But this year Russian government officials took the non-winning as an even bigger insult than normal with people such as Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova and deputy prime minister Dmirtri Rogozin making critical statements about the competition.

Source
Maria V. Zakharova, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said that next year, Russia would come up with a song about President Bashar al-Assad of Syria that was sure to carry the day. “Assad bloody, Assad the worst. Give me prize so that we can host,” she wrote as a suggested lyric on her Facebook account.

A deputy prime minister, Dmitri O. Rogozin, proposed sending Sergei V. Shnurov, the frontman for a popular rock band known for its use of foul language and celebration of alcoholism. Others suggested that Russia send its contestants to Ukraine next year on the back of tanks.

Personally I find it absolutely hilarious that a guy like Dmitri Rogozin who normally is engaged in projects such as supporting Nazis in Europe feel it is necessary to comment on the Eurovision song contest. But it also provide an interesting display of the attitudes of the Russian government and their desperate attempts to promote themselves as successful, especially when the final outcome of winning is the opportunity to spend 35 million euro to display your national importance in this way:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

To be honest, that was the Swedish half time entertainment in the finals which caused the Russian embassy in Sweden to complain and their communications officer to suggest that the people making the show where lunatics who should be put in a mad house rather than on stage.

Russia then took the opportunity in the Eurovision even to show that they had pretty much the same ideas for a performance but with a much larger choir and two fake Lesbians.

So what do you think, should Russia just settle for a boycott of next years event or are the tanks and Assad support a more reasonable response to not winning the Eurovision?

[Karnil Vark Khaitan]

Neither! they should come join us next year, their song this year was really good, but Bulgaria should have won.

[Gäiten]

Germany got (again) the last place and congratulated the winner.

Russia is auch a large and great country, so why not show its greatness in congratulating too?

Such a kindergarden

[Karnil Vark Khaitan]

Yeah didn't get it why Ghost didn't get any votes really :|
I mean Poland with that weird song got the 4th number phone votes wtf!

[Obi Wan Asterix]

"Europe should be eternally gratefully that we sacrificed millions to liberate her from facism, not support a facist Ukraine." - Russia is the most utterly facist, not even national-socialist (national-capitalist is probably more correct), state in existence. You cannot, be black, gay, muslim in opposition, or non-Russian without being a secondary citizen in the eyes of the justice system. The television and media are completely state controlled, and function with state representation on their boards.... and the propaganda engine uses them to beyond-1940's standards-

The head of state is there for life, patriotism is evoked at every corner, its illegal to engage in minority activities in the one-of-many regions that want out of the federation (some of them in the geographical heart of Russia like for example Kazan).

And much much more

[Abdülmecid I]

The BBC link accurately described the core of the issue, which is a typical case of a propaganda move, (in that instance, from the Russian government), with contradictory results, due to the different principles and perspectives between the Russian people and the western Europeans. From my experience (and the BBC article agrees with that), the eastern Europeans tend to care about international competitions, such as Eurovision a bit too much. Consequently, the authorities exploit these feelings, by either gloating and taking pride of occasional successes, thus increasing their popularity by linking the fortunate event to themselves, or vehemently protesting, in cases of the more frequent failures, trying to convince their voters that they take "national matters" seriously and passionately defend their country's interests. Of course, such initiatives, like government officials complaining about music competitions, are justifiably viewed by many people out of Russia as childish and ridiculous, but the authorities don't care much, since their target group is the Russian masses, not them. A post of mine, concerning some different examples, about the same subject, made a while ago:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post14732812

[Twido]

The thing is, in the UK we have always criticised the ESO for its political scoring. Despite this the winning song is usually one of the better ones. This year they seemed to take it to a new level; even if you support the Ukraine (as I do), you have to admit that their song broke the rules about not having political songs in the contest. Not only that but the song was one of the worse ones in the final. It would be hypocritical of me not to condemn it now since I have criticised the contest so much in the past.

I don't normally watch this, but I have a Polish friend staying with me at the moment. I think it is much more popular in more eastern European countries and isn't considered quite so camp there.

[Condottiere 40K]

To reiterate, it's aspiration.

Apparently, the British had been the Barcelona of this league, constantly near the top; then their skepticism of the EU started creeping in, and the competition expanded to include new members who aspired to be included in Greater Europe, or ones that thought they had something to prove, that is the Russians, which covers the entire range of entertainment, including the Olympics and Football.

Putin wants the competition in Russia, so he can control events, which would be emphasized to the glory of Russia and the removal of anything critical to it.

[gaunty14]

Neither! they should come join us next year, their song this year was really good, but Bulgaria should have won.

Indeed, the song was suprisingly catchy, damn you Poland *shakes fist.

If Russia boycotted Eurovision, no one in Europe would really give a .

[Mary The Quene]

''Euro''vision.

[Condottiere 40K]

It's like UEFA, everyone wants to join.

There's a theory they might try for Globalvision. You'd have to watch out for the South Koreans.

[Dromikaites]

The satyrical Romanian website www.timesnewroman.ro has already published an article announcing Puțin has changed his mind and decided Russia should show fairplay. As such he directed 174000 Russian soldiers to go to Kiev and congratulate Jamala :-)

[Odenat]

Altough i support Crimean Tatars and i'm happy that a song with a few Turkish sentences won, (the song's reprise is in Turkish) i think Jamala's song is political, so it can not be a part of Eurovision. What will happen next year if Azeris&Armenians made songs about Karabag, Greeks about how Germany maltreats them and Germans about refugees?

[Condottiere 40K]

If they don't sing it in English, we won't know and won't care.

[mrmouth]

Russia is just way down the rabbit hole at this point. Starting to make the Soviets look rational.

[gaunty14]

Altough i support Crimean Tatars and i'm happy that a song with a few Turkish sentences won, (the song's reprise is in Turkish) i think Jamala's song is political, so it can not be a part of Eurovision. What will happen next year if Azeris&Armenians made songs about Karabag, Greeks about how Germany maltreats them and Germans about refugees?

I don't think it necessarily is, I certainly wouldn't accuse the organisation of bias. Last year (or a couple of years ago?), the Ukranian entry was banned from competing for being political, it was straight up insulting Putin. This is simply stating a historical fact where pretty much no-one who was involved is still alive or in a political office.

[Bobington]

Holy this is good.

[Roma_Victrix]

Russia is just way down the rabbit hole at this point. Starting to make the Soviets look rational.

Throwing a tantrum over Eurovision of all things at the state level is absurd, but I fail to understand how that is comparable to the level of consternation the Soviet Union fostered in opposing the West. The present-day Russian Federation regularly toys with the idea of shutting off gas supplies to Europe, a threat that is never really taken that seriously. Compare that to the Soviets who built the Berlin Wall and sent assassins into Western countries to kill political opponents. I can think of only one instance where the Russian Federation has done the latter (i.e. Alexander Litvinenko in London).

[pacifism]

All I know about Eurovision is that it's a series of international, mini-Super Bowl halftime shows, the scoring could not be done in a more confusing way, and that Moldova won in 2010. The way I see it, anyone could be upset because of the results of that scoring system.

Because of this, I would not be surprised if winning Eurovision has little to do with music, or that Russia cares about it for some reason. The fact that nobody moved thread to Thema Devia confirms this. A thinly-veiled political prestige show disguised as a European music competition ... I hate Eurovision already.

[Condottiere 40K]

The Russians have very little else to celebrate, except sporting victories (which explains the cheating), and Eurovison (where they can't).