Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Russia was right to boycott this year`s Eurovision song contest because Ukrainian authorities were not up to the job of organizing such events, according to Reuters.
Russia`s state broadcaster boycotted the contest after Ukraine, the host country, barred entry to the Russian contestant because she had performed in Crimea after the region was annexed by Russia, Reuters wrote.
Earlier, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will decide in June whether sanctions against Ukraine over a Russian contestant and against Russia over absence at the contest`s mandatory meetings should be introduced.
”When it comes to Russia [whose contestant Yulia Samoilova was barred from entering Ukraine due to the violation of travel rules], everything that has happened this year – we will have to look into after the contest [ends], and then we`ll take a decision,” Eurovision Song Contest Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand said at a press conference on May 10.
He confirmed that the issue of the sanctions against Ukraine or Russia was put on the agenda of the Reference Group meeting.
Salvador Sobral from Portugal won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on May 13 with his entry ”Amar Pelos Dois.”
