26th February, 2022
Major Russian news outlets suspended their membership in the European Broadcasting Union in response to the country’s exclusion from the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.
The outlets include Russian broadcaster VGTRK, Channel One and Radio House Ostankino.
According to them, the ban was an inappropriate “political sacrifice” at a music forum that has always emphasized its non-political status.
Earlier, the EBU, which produces the event, said Russia’s inclusion could bring the competition into disrepute “in light of the unprecedented crisis in Ukraine”.
The 66th edition of Eurovision is set to take place in Turin, after Italian rock band Maneskin won the 2021 contest.
SPUTNIK NEWS said the scrapping of Russia’s act in 2022 is not the first of such decisions related to Eurovision.
It said the song “1944” presented by Ukrainian singer Jamala stole a last-minute victory in 2016 despite it being a “blatant political manifesto”.
The lyrics were widely interpreted as referring to Joseph Stalin’s deportation of Crimean Tatars amid the largely tense relations between Russia and Ukraine.
“When strangers are coming, they come to your house, they kill you all and say, we’re not guilty, not guilty,” the Ukrainian performer sang at the time.
It was also perceived as reference to Crimea, which Russia took in 2014.