Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Russians are now pointing fingers at the professional juries. A total of 21 juries out of 41 left Russia with null points. Politics!? Russian media is spreading the list of countries that includes also Finland, accusing them in a hard way. These countries are Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Poland, Norway, Georgia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia, Israel, Macedonia, Italy, Ireland, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands.  Only Azerbaijan, Belarus, Greece and Cyprus gave Russia 12 jury votes.  Out of these null pointer countries most went for Ukraine instead: they got 12 jury votes from Poland, Georgia, Israel, Slovenia, Macedonia and Denmark, 10 from Italy and United Kingdom, 8 from Lithuania, 7 from Estonia, 6 from Switzerland, 4 from Norway, 3 from the Netherlands and Belgium and 2 from Australia. On the other hand Finland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Ireland gave null points to Ukraine, too. As did Russia.  ...

Telegraph writes lenghty about the Russian reactions to be beaten by Ukraine.  While Ukrainians basked in their Eurovision win on Sunday, Russian officials and Kremlin-friendly media offered up a string of conspiracy theories to explain the win of Crimean Tatar singer Jamala, whose song “1944” was largely seen as a jab at the Kremlin. And some officials said Russia should boycott the song contest next year, if it is set to be held in Ukraine. The song contest took on major political overtones this year, as Ukraine's Jamala squared off against Russian singer Sergei Lazarev in a showdown that many Eurovision fans saw as a continuation of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. When Ukraine beat Russia 531 points versus 491, Russia's state-run media seemed to have a hard time coming to terms with it. Interviewing Lazarev after he came in third, Russia's state-run television channels presented him as the “champion,” apparently hinting that the official results d...