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UKRAINE HAS BARRED a Russian singer from entering the country to participate in this year’s Eurovision song contest, due to be held in Kiev in May.
The country’s security service (SBU) said that Julia Samoilova was banned over a past performance in Russia-annexed Crimea.
“The Security Service of Ukraine has banned Julia Samoilova from entry for three years,” SBU spokeswoman Olena Gitlyanska said. “The decision was taken just now.”
Gitlyanska added the ban had been imposed because Samoilova had been “in violation of Ukrainian legislation.”
Samoilova is a wheelchair user who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy. She was a finalist in the Russian version of the X-Factor, and performed at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told the Interfax news agency: “This is yet another outrageous, cynical and inhumane act by the Kiev authorities”.
Political tension has persisted in the region since Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014
Ukraine had condemned the choice of the singer as a Russian “provocation,” while the Kremlin insisted it opposed “politicising” the contest.
The song which won the Eurovision song contest for Ukraine last year was a politically charged one.
A combination of a jury and public vote saw a song about the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars under Josef Stalin, sung by Jamala, selected to represent the country.
Ukraine narrowly won the contest, with Australia second and Russia coming in third.
With reporting from AFP - © – AFP, 2017
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I’m with Russia on this one… They only banned her because she won the contest, not because they ban everyone who visited Crimea.
@Gulliver Foyle: Ukraine ban everybody who enters Crimea from Russian territory. That’s the law about “occupied territories”. If she come to Crimea via Ukraine there would be no problems.
@Gulliver Foyle: FSB and Russian government knew what will happened and its their usual PR play on suffering, emotions or some tensions.
@Gulliver Foyle: Apparently Crimea was in Greek hands, then Roman Empire, the Ottoman empire until 1783 when Russia defeated the Turks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Crimea
@Gulliver Foyle: Have you been to Russia? If not you can stick your opinion where the sun does not shine. Yes, Putin is a dictator. Yes, majority of Russians support his rule. It happened that Russians need a dictator. He brought the giant from its knees. As for Ukraine, EU and US handouts will come to an end and we gonna see who was right.
@Oleksandr Savitskyy: Are you a Ukrainian patriot? So why you are not at the front line in Donbass??? I would love to see how far you will get there, probably you applied for asylum in Ireland a decade ago and now from the comfort of your sofa you are writing patriotic posts. You know what name Ukrainian language has for you.
@Pavel Shipilov: Yea , Putin and knees. and oil went up 10 times. Look at Russian economy now. Where is genius dictator? BTW here is a treatment of disabled ppl in “Great Putins Russia”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry-T-Ed2lMU The person featured in video was asking for 10 years local coucilors to build a low kerb near…………hospital and then decided to do it himself.
@Pavel Shipilov: Probably the same name they reserve for Puntinistas like yourself Pavel.
@Pavel Shipilov: My personal life should not be interest for you mate. Yes I do love Irealnd the same as Ukraine. There are more than enough man fighting on Ukrainian side and believe me if there would be full scale invasion i will be there but for a moment I do enough to debunk Russian troll army ugly lie campaigns. BTW why are you in Irealnd? Putin brought the giant from its knees….. I have heard that the average wage is whole 400e per month and some people dont get paid wages for 3 monthes. Would be lovely place to work.
@Pavel Shipilov: Another example of treatment of disabled ppl. The guy featured is former governor of Habarovsk region and he is in regional hospital where elevator has not been changed from USSR times yet Putin spends fortune “to help ppl of Syria and Donbass” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crF9V5TW3qA
@Pavel Shipilov: why would one visit a dictatorship? You don’t need to visit the sun to know it is hot.
@Oleksandr Savitskyy: It appears from your response that I was indeed correct about you receiving an asylum in Ireland decade ago, very possibly on false pretence, so tell us what did you tell irish immigration authority?
@Pavel Shipilov: are you in Ireland Pawel? Or a troll office in Vladivostok?
@Alan Brogan: St Petersburg Alan. That is the main HQ for them.
@Pavel Shipilov: I will surprise you. I came 14 years ago during the times of Celtic Tiger and found job via my Vinnitsa State Agrarian University who had cooperation with one of Irish companies. You can call them and ask as well as ask INIS . So how you came here and why are you not working in Russia? Its great there as you said. And what do you think about treatment of disabled ppl in Russia in videos I sent to you?
@Pavel Shipilov: Yet typical rude and personal Russian bot behaviour who does not have any arguments “Over the last 10 or 20 years, Ukrainians were essentially not present in the asylum numbers,” said Robert K. Visser, the executive director of the European Asylum Support Office, based in Malta. “That changed substantially and quite suddenly in March of last year.” Ukrainians could claim asylum in EU since 1998. Did I answer your question? https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/world/europe/ukrainian-migrants-fleeing-conflict-get-a-cool-reception-in-europe.html?_r=0
@Oleksandr Savitskyy: pardon “Ukrainians could not oficcially claim asylum in EU since 1998″
@Gulliver Foyle: Russia appologist
@Oleksandr Savitskyy: truly delighted that you bacame an irish citizen without pulling a poor boi card. In respect of disabled ppl treatment in Russia I can only condemn the atrocities that happens to ppl who have disabilities. You also perfectly know that Ukraine is not pioneering in the way disabled ppl are treated. Thanks to Nazi run government, there will be nothing left of Ukraine. That perhaps will make you feel a greater sofa patriot. Slava Ukraine – gerojam slava!
@Pavel Shipilov: you don’t have much faith in the Russian people do you? To say they need a dictator is fairly insulting.
@Pavel Shipilov: “Thanks to Nazi run government, there will be nothing left of Ukraine” Yea right mate. I could read this from Putinistas in 2004. Now its 2017. So how come in such a “perfect” state ppl treated so badly?
@jane: What really surprises me, that people who know nothing about Russia or Russians allow themselves really dumb comments.
@Oleksandr Savitskyy: just to make the record straight, I m not a Russian citizen, was not born in Russia, I hold EU passport according to my birth place. I disagree with many things that happen in Russia. More questions?
@Pavel Shipilov: so no one is allowed to say anything bad about Russia unless they’ve been there? I’ve never been to North Korea but I can say with certainty that it’s not a good place to live. You need to grow a thicker skin.
@lez ferguson: Pavel – have I been to Russia? yep… not sure why that impacts my opinon on the Eurovision. Am I aware of the problems in Russian politics? yep, fully – I have to deal with them. Do I apologise for Russia? Not in the slightest!
Should Ukraine secret service ban an individual only *after* she won a song contest because she is Russian, and traveled to occupied Crimea from Russia? Damn no – that’s political. What would be more of a snub to Russia than allowing her to participate in what is described as “Europe’s Biggest Gay Pride march”?
@Pavel Shipilov: “I m not a Russian citizen, was not born in Russia”—–”What really surprises me, that people who know nothing about Russia or Russians allow themselves really dumb comments.” I am lost man.
Russia’s choice of her was purely political. She has publicly supported Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea and has publicly supported the illegal terrorist regimes in Eastern Ukraine. Added to that the Russian’s are using her disability as a propaganda weapon. If she had been allowed to participate and had been booed by the locals (which would have been very likely because of her very public political stance) the Russian media would have had a field day condemning the Ukrainians for abusing “a poor crippled girl”. Putin and his cronies are truly a vile lot.
@Mick Jordan: @Mick Jordan: 100% what you said Mick. But I am as Ukrainian would agree more with one Ukrainian volunteer. Instead of banning this girl he offered to change the law and allow her to come, as you said they use her disability to show “cruel fascist Ukrainians” and that worked. So I would let her come but send few hundreds of young Ukrainians who become disabled because of conflict and occupation done by Putins Russia and let those guys give this girl some flowers and let her sing. This way Putin would have lost his PR stunt yet now everybody is talking about it and that’s was their main goal.
@Oleksandr Savitskyy: Ukraine was going to portrayed as the Bad Guy by the Russians no matter what they did. So they chose the least worst path.
I’m inclined to agree with the Russians.
Let the games begin
How can anyone say that it’s not politically motivated competition??? Imagine, if Russia banned Ukrainian singer? The Nazi run country is on road to he’ll.
@Pavel Shipilov: Russia surely is Pavel. With a Dictator like Putin steering it right into the deepest pits.
@Pavel Shipilov: I know Mick Jordan or someone just said this but… This is clearly a political move on the part of Russia. They knew Ukraine would refuse her entry. And hoped it would make Ukraine look like the bad guy being mean to the disabled girl. But we’re not that dumb. Putin and his people are the bad guys here. Russia must be an amazing place. Pity Tsarina Putin is so eager to ruin it.
@Pavel Shipilov: There are officially 300000 Ukrainians are banned from entering Russia including some writers, singers, artists etc.
Thejournal app is crap.
Long winded whining on every article shows it isn’t.
Hosting the contest does not give you a veto over the contestants.
@Simeon: It does if one more of the participants has broken the law and is subject to an exclusion order from the host country. The Russian are quite within their rights to send another contestant.
@Simeon: Ukrainan law is above rules of the contest. I wrote it already. If she came to Crimea via Ukraine there would be no problems. She is on Ukrainian list of ppl who broke “occupied territory law “from 2014.
@Oleksandr Savitskyy: Surely the whole point of going to Kerch directly from Russia was because it was the only legal way to get to the annexed territory as a Russian? Sure the place is just Crimea’s answer to Dunfanaghy anyway.
Don’t tell Trump for Christ sake
I think running a country gives you some rights in relation to who you allow into your country. And she’s being sent by an imperial occupying power. Have I said that right? It’s surely a form of imperialism to annex part of a neighbouring country.
@Mark Gearey: Yep, she’s Russia’s answer to Hugo Duncan.
Because Ukraine has it in for Russia since Stalin was in control and the famine he caused with the plantation of Russians into Ukraine but yet Russias first capital city was Kiev and not Moscow, funny that?
@Alois Irlmaier: And the Rus elites were decended from the Norse. Does that make Oslo or Stockholm the real capital of Russia? Why can’t Russia and it’s sycophants accept the fact that Ukraine is no longer part of Russia and wants nothing to do with Russia anymore like wise Georgia and most likely a dozen other places that are currently under Russian rule.
@Mick Jordan: You don’t like the Russians but yet they are as corrupt as the Brittish and the Americans but they use the word lobbying to hide what they do?
@Mick Jordan: I think you find that any countries elite as in the European Royal families must have slept with each other and their first cousins many times over?
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