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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Ukrainians have chosen the city to host Eurovision 2017
The SBU is investigating a case regarding possible vote "padding" by Ukrainian viewers for a Russian singer.
Literally on the third day after Jamala’s triumphant victory, Ukraine was shaken by news that Eurovision might not be held in our country. That’s how people interpreted Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk’s statement, Ukrainian Realities report, citing TSN.
In his blog the minister wrote that hosting Eurovision costs a billion hryvnias — that’s expensive. And he casually noted that some countries have refused to host the contest altogether. There have been five such cases in total.
The official now insists he was misunderstood. He is only worried about the event’s budget and is actually "for" holding the contest in Ukraine. So can we afford it? Journalist Oleksandr Shylko compiled all the pros and cons.
A flood of emotions, reprints, and interpretations was sparked by Oleksandr Danyliuk’s blog on Ekonomichna Pravda. At first the finance minister essentially calls for businessmen, sponsors, and local budgets to help fund Eurovision, estimates how many tourists and investors will come to Ukraine, and calculates who will pay for what. But his closing words caused the biggest resonance:
"Because of the specifics of my work I have to think about the budget. I urge a sober assessment of the possibilities and benefits of Eurovision and remind you that the project must be financially justified. 1 billion hryvnias is an enormous sum. After all, the world knows five examples of passing on the right to host the contest. For example, France in 1960 year handed it over to Britain. If we decide to host the contest, we must clearly formulate for ourselves why we are doing this and what benefit it brings to the state."
Does this mean that Eurovision could be canceled in Ukraine? Panic erupted online. The winner of Eurovision-2016, Jamala, was also shocked by this possibility.
"This is the first time I’ve heard this. It seems impossible to me. No, no-no-no-no-no, absolutely not. We cannot, we must not give our victory to someone else, it’s impossible," Jamala stressed.
That day government officials rushed to reassure people — Eurovision will take place. Youth and Sports Minister Ihor Zhdanov even visited the Olympic Stadium to see whether Eurovision-2017 guests would get wet from rain.
"You could fit 40 thousand spectators there, it would be an absolute record. You can technically put a roof covering — the stadium management has already been in touch with the German contractors who built and designed this roof, all safety measures are in place," Zhdanov assured.
Colleagues explain the finance minister’s words by saying he is simply doing the math.
"It’s natural that a colleague representing the Ministry of Finance may react more sharply to expenditures that could appear in the next fiscal year. At the same time I spoke with him; he’s not opposed. He wants to understand how it will work and whether it will fall on the state budget," Culture Minister Yevhen Nyshchuk said.
The country’s chief financier confirms he is pleased his publication drew attention to the financial side of the issue. "I assure you that it (Eurovision) will be in Ukraine.
I was basically getting at the point that if we don’t start properly and on time, we could find ourselves in a situation where even such an important contest could go elsewhere," Oleksandr Danyliuk noted.
"Absolutely not. I believe this is a great honor for us. Jamala is a very big victory for our country at a very important moment. We must make every effort to hold Eurovision at a high professional level," Groysman said.
Already Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Lviv, and Kherson have joined the fight for the right to host Eurovision-2017. Eurovision delegates will take everything into account — distance to airports, number and star level of hotels, availability of a covered concert hall or a project to build one. So before the most popular song contest in Europe begins in Ukraine, there will also be a battle of cities for the right to host the event.
On TSN.Week’s Facebook page a poll was held, asking users to choose the city to host Eurovision in 2017. Almost 30 thousand internet users responded to the poll. 3% voted against holding the song contest in Ukraine, 2% for Kherson, 5% for Dnipro, 8% for Odesa, 21% for Kyiv. The poll leader was Lviv — 44%. The arguments for this city are weighty — although Kyiv is the most infrastructurally adapted, Lviv is more hospitable, cozy, and closer to Europe. The most popular comment in favor of Lviv was from Tonika Maksymiv: "In Lviv, so that everyone can see real Banderites with their own eyes. And for tourists from the RF it will be an opportunity to disprove their phobia about 'fascist fears'."
But attempts to take Ukraine’s Eurovision victory away began literally the day after the results were announced. Some Artur Ovanesyan, allegedly from Armenia, registered a petition on the European Broadcasting Union website calling for the results to be reviewed. 'Some' and 'allegedly' — because journalists checked and say the person is fictitious, there’s no such profile on social networks. And most likely invented by the Russians themselves. After all, it’s mainly Russian sites writing about the petition.
Russian sources spun another intrigue — claiming that the Danish jury mixed up the voting system and instead of giving Jamala zero, awarded her 12 points. However, even that could not have changed Ukraine’s result: the gap between first and second place was too large. And here the lie was exposed as well. It turned out not the jury, nor even its chair, but one of the members who made the mistake. Eurovision organizers have already responded — there will be no review. There are dissenters in every contest. Ukraine is and remains the winner.
Meanwhile, 12 points for the Russian singer from viewers in Ukraine may turn out to be a technological trick by Moscow. The SBU uncovered an entire communications channel between Russian special services and terrorists in Donbas. To hide where the calls originated, the attackers routed international phone calls through computers and SIM cards to make them appear as domestic Ukrainian calls. They found SIM cards in the apartment totaling nearly 350 thousand hryvnias. Imagine if all those cards, supposedly from Ukraine, voted in Eurovision the way the Kremlin wanted. And what if such centers operate in other European countries?! The facts and suspicions are certainly worth the SBU passing them on to the Eurovision directorate. Because if mass falsification is confirmed, Russia itself will have to consider how to avoid disqualification from the contest.
ukrreal.info
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Українці визначились з містом проведення Євробачення 2017". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
