Russia vs Azerbadjan

[Haykakan]

Russia vows reprisals for 'stolen' song contest votes


Doug Stanglin, USATODAY9:21 a.m. EDT May 21, 2013


The president of Azerbaijan has ordered an investigation as to why the Russian got no votes, which are submitted by viewers in text messages.




(Photo: John MacDougall AFP/Getty Images)


Story Highlights
Votes are submitted from viewers by text message
The Russian finished fifth, but the 'stolen' votes would not have affected the rankings
Azerbaijan's ambassador, a former Soviet-era crooner, weighs in

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who already has such divisive issues as Syria and North Korea on his plate, weighed in Tuesday on another international topic: Votes "stolen" from the Russian entry in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest.

Lavrov issued a stern warning Tuesday after reports surfaced that Dina Garipova, the Russian contestant in Saturday's competition, was allegedly deprived of 10 points purportedly given by viewers in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, the Interfax news agency reported.

"That 10 points were stolen from our contestant during the Eurovision 2013 contest does not make us happy regarding the organization of the event," Lavrov said at a joint press conference with his Azerbaijan counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov. He warned that "the outrageous action at Eurovision regarding the Russian contestant will not go unanswered."

Garipova finished fifth with her ballad "What If," coming in 17 points behind fourth-place Norway. The "stolen" 10 points would not have made a difference in the overall ranking, but to Lavrov, that was not important.

Azerbaijan's ambassador to Moscow, well known Soviet-era crooner Polad Bulbuloglu, told Russian television that it was impossible that Garipova did not score any points in his country, The Guardian reported. In its own voting, Russia gave the Azerbaijani entry the maximum 12 points. Votes are based on text messages sent in by viewers.

Mammadyarov said at the same press conference that the results "received from all three cellular operators gave second place to Russia," Interfax reported. "It is certainly a question to our Public Television what happened to the votes and how they disappeared."

Ambassador Bulbuloglu, disclosed that Azerbaijan President Aliyev had ordered an investigation and votes were being recounted, the BBC reported.

Camil Guliyev, head of Azerbaijan's state broadcaster, said the failure to allocate Russia any points was of serious concern.

"We sincerely hope that this incident, possibly initiated by certain interest groups, will not cast a shadow over the brotherly relations of the Russian and Azerbaijani peoples," he said.

The BBC noted that Azerbaijan has traditionally tried to maintain good relations with Moscow though there have been tensions over energy in the past.

Denmark's Emmelie de Forest won the popular European contest with 281 points, well ahead of second place Azerbaijan.

[Haykakan]

Re: Russia vs Azerbadjan

Lithuanian media: Azerbaijan is massively buying votes at
``Eurovision-2013'' song contest (Video)

http://www.panorama.am/en/society/2013/05/20/az-eurovision/

13:36 20/05/2013 » SOCIETY


Azerbaijan in all countries carried out buying up of votes during the
"Eurovision 2013" song contest, the "buyers" told to Lithuanian
journalists who were carrying out their own investigation, writes the
Lithuanian portal `15min.lt'.

As stated in the article, everything started on Saturday morning when
some students turned to the editorial office and told an amazing
story: Russian-speaking men approached them near the White Bridge in
Vilnius and offered them to a work for money.
`The "work" turned out to be not dusty. It was required to vote for a
specified artist in the evening at "Eurovision-2013" for many times.
For this they would get 20 euro fee. The vote buyers have promised to
provide them with sim cards the account od which was filled up in
advance," the material says.

Students retold the story to `15min.lt' angrily, noting that that's
the way how Russia retains its influence in Lithuania and the vision
that everyone here supports Russia. Lithuania really was giving Russia
rather high scores in recent years.

Journalists `15min.lt' pretended to be greedy citizens and went to
meet the buyers up of votes. They had candid cameras and tape
recorders with them. At the meeting it turned out that the students
had mixed the country; the vote buying was being carried out not for
Russia, but for Azerbaijan.

`15min.lt' says that the buyers-up came to the café, the appointment
place, on time. In about ten minutes of conversation they managed to
present the whole scheme, boasted that the buying up is carried out in
nearly all countries and that no country wins the competition
otherwise for a long time. They almost did not let the reporters to
ask a single question.

"The groups have to be in different places of the city, for the
operators not to have a suspicion that there is a mass voting for one
of the performers from the same point," the buyers noted.

A man who introduced himself as Sergei said that their goal is to
collect as many groups of ten people as possible. Groups should be in
different places in the city, so that the operators did not have a
suspicion that there is a mass voting for one of the participants from
one and the same point. Each of the 10 people should have five phones.
Those who agree to vote get sim cards with filled up account. They
must vote as many times as possible in 15 minutes.



The buyers-up confessed that they had already gathered 8-10 such
groups. "That, probably, meant that there were quite a lot of groups
like this in Lithuania. Each group must have one supervisor, who was
paying for the job; he just checks the number of sent messages and
pays," stated the material.

Asked to prove that they will be paid, buyer-up smugly pulled out a
thick wad of bank notes of five euros, adding that the payment may be
done also in lits.

It is noted that all of this had already been worked out during the
semi-finals. Three groups were working under the supervision of these
specific buyers-up by that time.

A man told without any ceremony that in 15 countries there are such
groups that are working on Azerbaijan. There is no other way to win
the song contest, and that almost all the countries are doing the same
way. When asked how much it cost to win the contest, the man
laconically said, millions.

Journalists issued a video recording of the conversation with the
buyers-up of votes for
Azerbaijan.[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=JvHwxzXkeo8]

It is noted that Lithuania gave 12 points to Azerbaijan at
"Eurovision-2013" song contest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JvHwxzXkeo8

Source: Panorama.am

[TomServo]

Re: Russia vs Azerbadjan

Why does the East take this contest so much more seriously than the West?

[retro]

Re: Russia vs Azerbadjan

Why does the East take this contest so much more seriously than the West?

Eurovision might be cheesy and kitsch. However for some reason it has enomous global ratings and they think that they can use it to promote there nations.

[Haykakan]

Re: Russia vs Azerbadjan

Did European audience's votes for Dorians disappear?

ARMINFO
Tuesday, May 21, 20:02

While Azerbaijan is trying to find out how its votes in favor of Dina
Garipova, the Russian participant in Eurovision 2013, disappeared,
Europe has started speaking of the problems it came across when voting
for Armenia.

This year Armenia has been represented at Eurovision by the rock band
"Dorians", which has gained the 18th place. Following the finals the
rock performers started receiving messages from their fans living in
Europe. In particular, the fans from the Netherlands and Belgium said
that their calls and sms-messages in Armenia's favor failed either to
be accepted or to be counted. To recall, earlier 15min.lt (Lithuania)
disclosed the scandalous case of the voting mechanism. According to
the journalistic investigation of 15min.lt, in Lithuania the votes in
Azeri participant Farid Mamedov's favor were purchased for 20 EUR.

To note, the winner of Eurovision 2013 was Emmelie de Forest
(Denmark). A total of 26 countries took part in the contest in 2013.