Ukrainians hailed their country's unexpected victory in the Eurovision song contest as a Europe-wide endorsement of Ukraine in its smouldering conflict with Russia, while Moscow said the contest had been hijacked by politics.
Ukrainian singer Jamala overtook the bookmakers' favourites, Russia and Australia, to lift the prize with the song 1944, about the war-time deportations of ethnic Tatars from Ukraine's Crimea peninsula by Soviet dictator Stalin.
The singer, herself of Crimean Tatar descent, had drawn parallels in interviews to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, which provoked western condemnation of the Kremlin, and was opposed by many in the region’s Tatar minority.
Under Eurovision rules, the victory means the 2017 contest will take place in the Ukrainian capital.
One pro-Kremlin politician in Moscow suggested Russia might boycott the event next year.
After the results of Saturday's contest were announced in Stockholm, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko wrote on Twitter: "Personally congratulated Jamala with the victory. Today her voice spoke to the world on behalf of the entire Ukrainian people. The truth, as always, prevailed!"
Ukraine’s victory, 12 years after it last won the Eurovision title, lifted the mood of Ukrainians tired of perpetual political crises and daily struggles against endemic corruption and poverty.
The winning singer returned to Kiev on Sunday, the same day that Ukraine marks an annual day of remembrance for victims of political repression – including Soviet purges of Crimean Tatars and other groups on Ukrainian soil.
Fresh tensions
Tatars, a Muslim people indigenous to the Black Sea peninsula, now number about 300,000 in a population of 2 million. While many Crimean residents want to be ruled by Moscow, many Tatars are still mistrustful of the Kremlin after the wartime deportations and have opposed Moscow’s annexation.
That has unleashed fresh tensions. Two weeks ago, the Russian administration in Crimea banned the Crimean Tatars’ highest ruling body, the Mejlis, and there have been accusations – denied by Moscow – of systematic persecution of the Tatars.
– (Reuters)