Eurovision will allow Russia to participate despite the invasion of Ukraine: “It is a cultural event of a non-political nature”

Russia will be able to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest despite the war that has unleashed in Ukraine.

The European Broadcasting Union (UER), organizer of the festival, has indicated that, as “cultural event of a non-political nature”Russia will participate in the 2022 edition. It has confirmed this in a letter addressed to the US public broadcaster NPR following a request from the Ukrainian network UA:PBC, which requested his expulsion from the contest for being “a spokesman for the Kremlin and a key political propaganda tool financed from the Russian state budget.”

The entity has wanted to leave expensive that they will closely monitor what happens. “The Eurovision Song Contest is a non-political cultural event. However, the EBU is concerned about current events in ukraine and will continue to closely monitor the situation.”

This same year, the Ukrainian Alina Pash won the pre-selection of her country, but after her victory she was accused of having traveled to Crimea after the Russian annexation of 2014 without the corresponding permission. Although she denied it, the pressure made her give in and, finally, she will not travel to Turin (Italy) to participate in the grand finale in May.

It was not the first time something similar had happened. In 2019, Ukrainian public television declined to participate in the festival after that year’s preselection winner and one of the “eurofans'” favorites for victory at Eurovision, Maruv, refused to cancel her concerts on Russian soil. Ukraine had known victory in the contest shortly before, in 2016.

Although songs with a political message are prohibited, it was allowed Jamala competed with her song ‘1944’ for narrating a historical event, the deportation of thousands of Crimean Tatars, something that violated Russia, even more so after his victory. Precisely, the following year’s edition took place in a nerve center of this conflict, the port of Odessa. Ukraine, as the host country, blocked the participation of the Russian representative, Yulia Samoylova, by prohibiting him from entering its territory for having traveled to Crimea two years earlier “illegally” to participate in a concert.

This is only in the last few years, because the messages directed against Russia have already appeared in Ukraine’s notorious participation in 2007, when Verka Serdyuchka finished in second place with a crazy performance and song, “Dancing lasha tumbai”, a title that made a game of words that, when pronounced, seemed to say ‘Russia goodbye’.