“Tanks need no visas”

“Praying for peace and healing / I hope we can start again / We believe, we believe in the dream...” are the opening words of the song “A Million Voices,” which brought Russia’s Polina Gagarina… the second place in the final of the historic 60th Eurovision International Song Contest, held in Vienna on May 23. Social networks and blogosphere have literally erupted in a debate after the Europeans’ choice was announced. Understandably, this debate is colored differently in Ukraine and Russia. If the Ukrainians cannot understand why most of the participating countries graded the Russian representative at 8 to 10 points, while Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and... Germany and Estonia gave her the maximum score of 12 points, a majority of Russian Internet users complain about... biased voting, stating that Russia clearly deserved to win, but Europe did not want to hold the next final in Moscow. Let us recall that Ukraine, represented by the National Television Company in a bilateral agreement with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), withdrew from the song contest Eurovision-2015 back in 2014.

Although this year’s winner was Sweden’s Mons Zelmerlev with the song “Heroes,” the second place assigned by the Europeans to a representative of an aggressor country raises a question: has their opinion about the modern Putinist Russia stayed unchanged? After the annexation of Crimea, with irrefutable evidence of Russia’s participation in the war in the Donbas, ultimately, after Europe’s very own pain brought by the Boeing 777 manmade crash near the city of Torez, Donetsk region – after all this, Europe still votes for a Russian song about peace.

It should be said that the only countries to leave the representative of the Russian Federation with zero points were Lithuania and San Marino. At once, Russia’s Internet smart-alecks began to blather that Russians should now use… tanks to visit Lithuania. Do some Russians really agree with their Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin who said, commenting on EU sanctions, that “tanks need no visas”?

What is the true meaning of the Eurovision’s results, then? On the one hand, experts say that the audience of the competition consists mostly of, so to speak, “housewives,” i.e., middle-aged and elderly women. On the other, it is them who dominate the voting in European countries, and thus influence the official positions of their political elites.

“Russia’s second place in the contest, and the great support it received, demonstrate, on the one hand, the Europeans’ ‘political fatigue’ from the ‘Ukrainian question,’ and on the other, Russia’s clear objective to raise its image through this show,” public figure and president of the European Ukrainians’ Association Oleksii Tolkachov commented for The Day. “Russia understands well how the social phenomenon of following the majority opinion works. Its well-organized work to get a positive result for the aggressor country at this competition has proven for many European housewives that their country not only tolerates the Kremlin’s actions, but loves and supports it, with the top score of 12 points no less. Yes, Russia used the Eurovision to promote itself and show its nicer face to Europe through music, singing, staging a good show... Yes, Russia, just as every participating country, invests heavily in doing the voting ‘right,’ in particular, via hiring a huge number of ‘agents of influence’ who will send SMS messages in the moment when the vote will take place, so a large share of the vote was artificial. However, the results of the competition were determined not just by the audience, since another extremely important vote was that of the jury. Without a vote of the jury coming from all countries participating in the show, Russia would never get to the second place. Thus, this vote shows, on the one hand, the great influence of Russia in Europe, and on the other, the heterogeneity of   views on Russia in Europe itself. In other words, there is no myth of the demonic Russia, which some people in Ukraine believe to exist in Europe when they say that all of Europe is absolutely convinced that the mad Russia plans an attack on these countries.”

According to Tolkachov, the vote for Russia also shows that Europe is growing tired and relaxed about the situation around Ukraine, which is, to a certain extent, a result of the Kremlin’s propaganda and information lobby’s work in the EU. “Russia actively uses its singers, actors, athletes to reaffirm their right to global supremacy,” the public figure went on. “As we see, it works with the ordinary voter. Of course, European politicians understand it all, but they are getting tired of uncertainty surrounding Russia, absence of positive changes in Ukraine itself, particularly regarding reforms, and finally... they have to take into account their constituents’ opinions. That is, the opinions of the Eurovision audience. The Europeans turn on the news and hear that Russia is an aggressor, but they then watch a musical show and change their views, because a beautiful girl from Moscow sings about peace. In fact, I have always observed that the Eurovision is not a musical or song contest, but rather a competition in political intrigues.”

“Has Europe sold out?” or What is the meaning of a Russian singer’s high score at the Eurovision

COMMENTARY

“RUSSIA HAS SHOWN THAT IT CAN VOTE FOR ITSELF FROM OTHER COUNTRIES AS WELL...”

Roman NEDZELSKY, general director of the Ukraina Palace, chairman of the National Selection jury for the Eurovision in 2008-10:

“I think we need to create, develop, and invest in national competitions and festivals, rather than spending money on the Eurovision, and I believe that in the current situation, Ukraine should not take part in it. Of course, we do not want to lose a 200-million-strong audience, and a chance for Ukrainian artists to be heard and seen by this audience, for good, but the Eurovision has discredited itself. This is an international song contest, and it is songs that should compete there, in principle, but actual winners are performers and the countries they represent... Everybody knows that voting is not free from various political influences, that European countries have a habit of voting for neighbors, and they proved it once again this year. As for Russia, it has shown that it can vote for itself from other countries as well... During most of the vote count, I sat on tenterhooks, because the Russian performer was leading it. I thought: ‘Has Europe sold out?’ After all, how else can one explain the highest scores assigned to the representative of an aggressor country, recognized as such not only by Ukraine but by the whole world? I have no beef with Polina Gagarina, she is a professional singer and performed as such. Still, how should one take the fact that a representative of a warmongering country enters the stage once again and sings about peace on earth, unruffled in the slightest? Everyone understands that words fundamentally differ from deeds in this case, but they still assign high scores... I am very happy to see, say, Lithuania, giving no points at all to Russia!”