58th Eurovision Song Contest: Denmark Wins, Russia’s Dina Garipova in Fifth Place

Da winnah!

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Here’s the winning song

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Here’s the Russian entry… Ura for the home boys!

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On Saturday, Denmark’s Emmelie Charlotte-Victoria de Forest won the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 before an international TV audience of around 125 million, winning the annual competition with a barefoot performance backed by flutes and drums. The 20-year-old won with the song Only Teardrops, competing against contestants from 25 other countries in a final held in Malmö in southern Sweden, scoring an overall 281 points. Eight out of the 39 participating countries gave the Danish contender the highest-possible score of 12 points. Russia’s Dina Garipova took fifth place, singing What If, scoring 174 points. She received top scores from two countries… Latvia and Estonia.

19 May 2013

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Dina Garipova

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Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Aleksandr Misurkin wished singer Dina Garipova success and victory at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden. Vinogradov said in a transmission from the International Space Station (ISS), “Our hearts ache for Dina Garipova, who represents our country at Eurovision”. Misurkin added, “We wish that our compatriot wins; she has beautiful voice, and we hope that she’ll win”. The Eurovision final kicked off at the Malmö Arena on Saturday evening. The 58th annual Eurovision song contest is underway in Malmö, Sweden. Russia’s Dina Garipova has already sung her soulful ballad What If. bookmakers consider Garipova, 22, who became Russia’s entry at Eurovision after winning the popular “Voice” television show last year, as one of the favourites at the contest, although Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest with Only Teardrops is still on top of the most-likely winner list.

19 May 2013

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Loreen, last year’s winning contestant

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Last Year’s ESC winner

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The Winner Takes It All… 2013 style

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Singers from 26 countries began battling it out on Saturday night for the crown of glitzy pop in the Eurovision Song Contest, returning this year to the homeland of ABBA, the Swedish band it propelled to global superstardom. One of them is Russian Dina Garipova. Bookmakers are tipping Denmark’s entry, 20-year-old Emmelie De Forest with her song Only Teardrops, to take out the competition comfortably. Other hot contenders for the title include Norway, the Ukraine, Russia, and Azerbaijan. The 26 countries competing in Saturday’s final are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the Ukraine, and Britain. The show, one of the world’s longest-running television programmes, landed in the city of Malmö on Sweden’s southern coast after Loreen (Lorine Zineb Nora Talhaoui) won the contest last year in Azerbaijan with her dance track Euphoria. Former ABBA members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus together with Swedish DJ and producer Avicii (Tim Bergling) composed the opening act; Swedish singer Sarah Dawn Finer will belt out the ABBA classic The Winner Takes It All during the three-hour programme.

18 May 2013

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Alyona Lanskaya of Belarus

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Zlata Ognevich of the Ukraine

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On May 18, the popular Eurovision Song Contest will have its finals, which, this time, take place in the Swedish city of Malmö. 26 participants have already made it to the finals, and one of them is Russian Dina Garipova. Some people estimate Garipova’s chances to win as high. Amongst other participants with good chances, they name Emmelie De Forest from Denmark, Margaret Berger from Norway, Zlata Ognevich from the Ukraine, Farid Mammadov from Azerbaijan, and Alyona Lanskaya from Belarus. Belarusian singer and TV host Georgi Koldun is a big-time fan of his compatriot Alyona Lanskaya, and he said, “The finals of the contest will most likely be a hard battle. It’s quite hard to predict who’ll win in the end, because the singers who made it to the finals are all very talented. Their songs are quite remarkable, and each of them has their own distinctive manner of performing”.

Dina Garipova decided that she‘d wear the same romantic pink dress in the finals in which she sang in the semifinals. However, some of the spectators found this costume a bit “sugary”. Others, on the contrary, liked it, because, as they say, in this dress Dina strikingly resembles Princess Madeleine of Sweden (Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland). Meanwhile, Dina doesn’t care what people think of her dress. She just likes it and feels comfortable in it. Unlike many modern singers, Dina doesn’t move in tune with her song on stage. She just stands and sings, because she wants to draw the listeners’ attention, firstly, to the song itself. The song that Dina chose for the Eurovision contest is What If. Its main message is that people should unite to make life better. In a VOR interview, Dina said, “I’ll try to sing this song with all my soul. I think that the songs’ authors put a very important message into it, and I’d like to get this message across to the audience”.

According to Eurovision’s rules, the votes of TV viewers determine the winner. TV viewers from countries that take part in the contest can vote in the contest, but a viewer can’t vote for their country’s entrant. Besides, there’s also a jury at the contest. The choice of the winner is split between a 50 percent share from the TV viewers’ choice and a 50 percent share from the jury’s vote. Yuri Aksyuta, the musical director of Pervy Kanal, which is broadcasting the Eurovision contest in Russia, said, “As a rule, all the songs sang at this contest are new. the audience only knows a few of them befroehand. The majority of the contest’s participants are trying to surprise the public with some unusual performance or special effects. Dina Garipova just stands and sings her simple, but very nice, song”.

Dina herself said that she’s taking part in the contest not for the sake of winning, noting, “Of course, I’d like to win, but if I don’t, I won’t take it as the end of my life. There is a saying that I find very wise, ‘Believe in success, but be ready for the worst’. This year, many young singers are taking part in the Eurovision contest… everyone is talented in their own way. It’s very hard to guess what the public may like and what not, but I’d accept any decision of the public, whatever it may be”.

18 May 2013

Natalya Viktorova

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_05_19/58th-Eurovision-Song-Contest-Denmark-wins-Russias-Dina-Garipova-is-the-5th-078/

http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_05_19/Cosmonauts-wish-Russian-singer-success-in-Eurovision-final-091/

http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_05_18/The-Eurovision-2013-final-has-begun-096/

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_05_18/Eurovision-Dina-Garipova-s-simple-song/

Rogozin Sez Russia to Keep Peacekeepers in Transnistria until Conflict Settlement

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Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin said that Russia would maintain its peacekeeping contingent in the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria) until Chișinău and Tiraspol agree on the status of the disputed self-proclaimed republic. Russia maintains a motorised infantry battalion in the region as part of the Collective Peacekeeping Forces (CPF), in addition to troops guarding several Soviet-era munitions depots. On Friday, Rogozin said at a meeting with Lomonosov Moscow State University (MGU) students, “As long as Russia retains its peacekeeping status on both sides of the Dniester, peace will prevail in the region. True, it’s an unrecognised republic, but at the same time there’s peace and security there”. Rogozin is Russia’s special presidential envoy for Transnistria.

The Russian-speaking province of Transnistria has maintained de facto independence from Moldova since a brief war in 1992 following the breakup of the USSR. Transnistria seeks full independence, whilst Moldova says it’ll only allow autonomy. The talks on the future of Transnistria using the “five-plus-two” format, involving Russia, the Ukraine, the OSCE, Moldova, and Transnistria, with the USA and the EU as observers, have stalled since February 2006. A joint peacekeeping force of Russian, Moldovan, and Transnistrian contingents is deployed in the region. Last year, Rogozin said that Russia’s planning to upgrade the military equipment of its peacekeeping contingent in Transnistria.

18 May 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130518/181216251/Russia-to-Ensure-Peace-in-Transdnestr-Until-Conflict-Settlement.html

Editor’s Note:

Rogozin is one of the most anti-American figures amongst the siloviki. He played a major role in the Battle of Stalingrad festivities earlier in the year, and he’s been making more public statements of late. In short, the recent arrest of Ryan Fogle was only another manifestation of Russia’s inexorable turn leftwards. Oligarchs beware… your time is running out (that’s why they’ve tried to squirrel funds abroad with the aid of Western corporate interests and intelligence operatives). In all countries, the leftists are the patriots; the rightwing business interests are anti-patriotic. Karl Marx WAS right… “Capital knows no homeland”.

Watch Rogozin… he hates America’s bogus money-grubbing non-culture and he hates the soulless oligarchs. He’s NOT alone in Russia…

BMD  

Vatican Sez Disgraced Cardinal to Leave Scotland for Penance

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On Wednesday, the Vatican said that Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, who resigned as head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland after acknowledging sexual misconduct, would leave Scotland for a period of “prayer and penance”. A statement said that O’Brien, who was Britain‘s most senior Catholic cleric until his resignation in February, would leave the UK “for the same reasons” that he decided not to participate in the conclave that elected Pope Francisco Bergoglio.

15 May 2013

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_05_15/Disgraced-Cardinal-OBrien-to-leave-Scotland-for-Penance-Vatican/

Editor’s Note:

Does this mean that Francisco’s gonna stomp on abusers or does it mean that he’s gonna squirrel ‘em away until the shit dies down? There’s no way of knowing… we’ll have to see what happens. Frankly, what Catholics (and others… including Orthodox) do in the USA doesn’t give me optimism… but we’ll have to see. You can’t attack someone until they fuck up… and Francisco hasn’t slammed it in the door, yet. On the one hand, he’s sincerely embraced evangelical poverty (and its espousal of the “preferential option for the poor”)… on the other, he has a blind spot in being so anti-abortion that it may blind him to rightwing shenanigans. We’ll have to see…

BMD

“The Sentiments Expressed by the Bolotnaya Square Protesters are Different from those Expressed by Other Protesters in Russia”: Natalia Narochnitskaya

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Valdaiclub.com interview with Natalia Narochnitskaya, Director of the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation in Paris and president of the Historical Perspective Foundation in Moscow

VC

Do you think the inspections of NGOs by the Prokuratura discredit these groups in the eyes of society, which is the goal, or do they discredit the government?

Narochnitskaya

It depends. The Western media are sure that these inspections discredit the authorities… that’s how they portray these audits. These NGOs, especially the most-high-profile ones, are their icons and they’ll portray them as heroes. As for Russian society, certain people, mainly in Moscow, share this view, but people in the rest of Russia don’t see these inspections as discrediting the authorities in any way. It’s important to understand that our society doesn’t have a united stand on this issue. The sentiments expressed by the Bolotnaya Square protesters are different from those expressed by other protesters in Russia. That’s my answer.

VC

Will these inspections further strain relations between activists and the authorities?

Narochnitskaya

Again, it depends. I think there are two unequal camps in the activist community. The *liberal Western-oriented camp that calls itself the “non-systemic” opposition is concentrated in Moscow and it’s very small on a national scale. However, this is the only opposition that the West notices, and, as a result, they’ll probably grow even more hysterical in their hatred of the Russian government.

*”liberal” in Russian terms is the same as the Anglosphere “libertarian”. The latter term isn’t part of Russian intellectual/political discourse. That is, when a Russian attacks “liberalism”, they attack the non-regulatory Hobbesian anarchism of the Anglosphere Right. That is, Russians uncontaminated by Western constructs oppose and anathematise anarchy of any sort; it doesn’t matter if it’s religious anarchy (“evangelical” sectarianism… an Orthodox bishop called it “Christian atheism”… how true!), societal anarchy (libertarianism), intellectual anarchy (“anarchy” per se), or moral anarchy (immorality)… in Russian terms, all four have an intimate and indissoluble correlation.

As for the majority of activists in the rest of Russia, they lean more towards left-wing views. They aren’t sad that the 1990s are over, but they feel like the car broke down on the road leading away from the ‘90s. These people are more worried about pensions, re-industrialisation, jobs, fighting corruption, and the decline of Russians as the dominant ethnic group in the country. However, they like Russia’s strong foreign policy and tough response to Western pressure. I don’t think these audits had any effect on their attitudes. They might even welcome them.

VC

Do you think there’s a connection between the audits of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), during which the auditors removed their computers and papers with Angela Merkel’s position on Cyprus?

Narochnitskaya

Maybe, but I don’t think so. By the way, in the West, many experts believe this, and in private conversation they’ll say that EU leaders probably gave Cyprus an ultimatum… make no agreements with Russia, or you won’t receive any cash and the EU will simply engineer its collapse in one week. I’ve heard this from British and French experts. In a brief statement on Cyprus’s collapse, Viktor Gerashchenko said off-the-cuff that probably this decision was directed against Russia and that Cyprus was being punished for its pro-Russian position and refusal to let the West anywhere near the deposits discovered on the country’s continental shelf. There was a risk that Russia might get a hold in this key strategic area in the Mediterranean. Nevertheless, I still believe that the EU had bigger motives in Cyprus. We can hardly consider the removal of computers as a “retaliatory measure”. They simply caught these NGOs in the same net as all the others.

VC

Do you think that these inspections are a pretext to put off the issue of establishing visa-free travel between Russia and Europe?

Narochnitskaya

For Europe and the EU, this is the pretext they’ve been looking for in order to hold up a process that they’re simply not ready for. No doubt, they’ll use it and cling to it. However, in reality… and experts have long known this… they aren’t ready for visa-free travel with Russia. They’re doing everything to impede the process, saying that they’ll have to deal with a wave of illegal workers from Asia and the Caucasus.

VC

What problems are Russian NGOs facing abroad?

Narochnitskaya

The media speaks ill of Russia or not at all. The French press is in the lead and the European media in general is acting in much the same manner. They welcome only those Russian NGOs that rabidly insist that no country in the world is worse and has fewer rights than post-Yeltsin Russia. They invite such people to speak on television very often. By the way, they’re from NGOs that receive official funds from the US budget. The US Congress is partially-financing institutions of the Republican and Democratic parties, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, and many Russian NGOs. I shudder to think what they would’ve written about my Institute of Democracy and Cooperation if we’d received a penny from the Russian budget.

By the way, I’ve just come back from America where I had a conversation with a prominent banking analyst. I asked him directly what he thinks about the campaign in the press against the new law requiring that NGOs funded from abroad must declare this if they conduct political activities in Russia. He laughed and said that in the USA foreign funding of political activities carries criminal penalties. He said a man from China contributed to a local election campaign in one city and received a 10-year prison term.

No matter what we do and what important events with distinguished people we hold, there’ll be little or no coverage. Sometimes, they invite us to be on television. If a Russian NGO in a foreign country doesn’t spew hatred for the government, even if it readily discusses our sins, they’ll always describe it as a Kremlin agency funded by the budget, even though this is a total lie. This is the constant insinuation you hear, based on some blogs. The academic community in Europe is much fairer and more objective, and it’s easier to work with them. We’re trying to involve them in serious roundtables where we always criticise corruption and other vices in Russian politics or the economy. Three years ago, our office in Paris opened with a seminar offering a comparative analysis of anti-corruption laws in France and Russia, which put Russia in an unfavourable light. We had interesting speakers on our side, and we acknowledged that corruption is a systemic problem that can’t be resolved quickly. However, nobody cares about this.

Here’s another example of what often happens. When my name came up in connection with the establishment of my institute’s office in Paris, many newspapers asked me for an interview… l’Express, Le Figaro, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and The Chicago Tribune {did Sophia Kishkovsky or Serge Schmemann interview Professor Narochnitskaya? Perspirin’ minds wanna know…: editor}. I talked with all of them at least for an hour about everything, including culture, insight into life in each other’s countries, and the desire to break the glass wall of misunderstanding that separates us. A French woman from l’Express and I even got to talking about Baudelaire’s poetry and hugged each other goodbye. You should’ve seen what her newspaper wrote! I regretted that I was so naïve and didn’t switch on the recorder. I could’ve published it online so that everyone could see that they clearly instructed her to write a negative story. Nevertheless, I didn’t say anything negative and she published in her newspaper three routine anti-Putin paragraphs that had nothing to do with our conversation and one sentence about our meeting… “This is the aim of the agency that will be headed by Natalia Narochnitskaya, whom I had a chance to meet”.

I can concur on Professor Narochnitskaya’s observation. Western media sorts NEVER tell it as you tell it and you must use the utmost caution in talking to them. Never be verbose… be concise, for they can edit your words in such a way that it’ll seem that you either support their position or that you’re a marginal nutter (this is particularly true of TV presenters). In fact, very few Western “authority figures” tell the truth (“winning by any means, fair or foul” is the most important component of the Western Corporate Weltanschauung)… be very, very careful in your dealings with them, especially, with clergy… never talk to a clergyman on substantive matters without a witness or two (doubly so, if he’s a convert or an SVS grad). As Paffhausen illustrated, all too often, they do lie whenever it’s convenient for them, and they’re bloody sincere and unctuous about it, too…

Frankfurter Allgemeine was the only newspaper to report what I said without sneering and in good faith. Its coverage reflected their understanding of what I said. An article in Le Figaro read, “Oh what a fierce debater they’ve sent from Russia!” I take pride in this! Speaking about freedom of the press in the West, the press is so subordinated to editorial policy that it’s long ceased to reflect the diversity of public thinking and public opinion in its own countries. Public opinion in these countries is much more complex, and many more people are quite fair in their views of Russia. I won’t say they’re fond of Russia, but they’re willing to listen calmly to positive information about the country. My European friends and partners tell me they’re sick and tired of hysterical Russophobia in the press. Incidentally, already, Russophobia has become marginal. The articles by André Glucksman have become so grotesque that they remind me of our incomparable Valeria Novodvorskaya {a pro-Western Quisling… she writes for the New York Times… did this traitor mentor Sophia Kishkovsky? Interesting angle, no?: editor}. The press has taken it so far that soon its coverage will have the opposite effect. This is what happened with anti-capitalist propaganda in the Khrushchyov era. We’ll discuss this problem… the origins of Russophobia… at a conference at Sapienza University of Rome in Italy in May, which I’m attending. The Italian side, not us, suggested the idea. This is already a good sign.

8 May 2013

Valdai Discussion Club

http://valdaiclub.com/politics/58200.html