RUSSIA: Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says votes for Russia's Eurovision entry stolen

Record ID: 218302

  • Title: RUSSIA: Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says votes for Russia's Eurovision entry stolen
  • Date: 21st May 2013
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (MAY 21, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXTERIOR OF RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY GUEST HOUSE RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SERGEI LAVROV AND AZERBAIJAN FOREIGN MINISTER ELMAR MAMMADYAROV TAKING SEATS AT NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS AND OFFICIALS LISTENING AT NEWS CONFERENCE MAMMADYAROV AND LAVROV SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) AZERBAIJAN FOREIGN MINISTER ELMAR MAMMADYARO
  • Embargoed: 5th June 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Entertainment,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7W532V9VMLJ1XY57PZM95BOM
  • Story Text: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Azerbaijan counterpart expressed outrage on Tuesday (May 21), for what they said were votes stolen from Russia's entry at the Eurovision song contest.
    "When they published the data about Azerbaijan, we went through a bit of a shock, and not only us but specifically Azerbaijan's public television channel, which is a partner of the European Broadcasting Union," Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a news conference in Moscow.
    "Once again, this is some sort of detective story. Here, Azerbaijan's largest mobile communications company, Azer-Cell, put Ukraine in first place - 7893 supports, and Russia in second with 1677, after that comes Malta, Belarus, Georgia, and so on, who had considerably less (support)," Mammadyarov said.
    "So, with all three operators - we only have three mobile communications operators - Russia is in second place. Where did the votes go? How did they disappear? This, of course, is a question for our public television," Mammadyarov added.
    Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has also ordered an inquiry into why Azerbaijan supposedly awarded Russia no points in the contest.
    The Eurovision contest on Saturday (May 18) was won by Denmark's Emmelie de Forrest, with Azerbaijan taking second place, followed by third place for Ukraine with "Gravity".
    Azerbaijan's public television has said that vote violations may have been involved in the contest.
    "In this situation, probably, we'll have to investigate to see how and where these votes went, which Azerbaijan citizens gave for the representative of the Russian Federation," Mammadyarov said.
    "Ten points were stolen from us. Well, not from us, but from our participant. This does not make one happy, more than anything else, from the point of view of how this event was organized. Elmar Maggeramovich (Mamadyarov) and I agreed that, after Azerbaijan's public television clears up the legal way of obtaining a thorough explanation, we will agree on a unified course of action so that this outrageous action will not remain without an answer," Lavrov said.
    Azerbaijan was host to last year's Eurovision contest, and Russia hosted the contest in Moscow in 2009.
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