The Russian entry is written by Russian Philip Kirkorov, Greek Dimitris Kontopoulos, Swedish John Ballard and Ralph Charlie and Maltese Gerard James Borg. Cypriot Alex Panayi, Swedish Jenny Tärneberg and Anna Standberg along with Portuguese Rui Andrade will be the backing singers... how many other nationalities they will still have time to add into their team? Will it help and make people forget about Crimea? At least the singing Tolmachevy sisters are Russian....
Then there's the question of Crimean vote. EBU is having nightmares about it as the contest is and must stay unpolitical officially. When people of Crimea vote where will they vote go? Will they be counted with the Russian vote or the Ucrainian vote? Will it split depending of which telephone operator you use? Is that then fair? One votes as a Russian, another as an Ucrainian in one country? Will Ucraine end up giving "Russia 12 points"?
EBU's Jan Ola Sand says they don't have an answer to that yet and calls it a technical challenge and it depends on whether the people in Crimea have a Russian
or a Ukrainian phone operator. One thing is sure: EBU needs to be careful to keep its cool and not end up taking sides that would end up as political statements....
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