EuroNews, France
May 21 2013

Joint probe into Russia’s Eurovision votes `stolen’ in Azerbaijan

21/05 16:42 CET

Russia and Azerbaijan are joining forces to investigate a Eurovision
scandal that saw votes for Russia’s entry vanish.

Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described as `outrageous’
the revelations by Azerbaijan that although its country’s voters had
put Dina Garipova’s ballad second, she got `nul points’ instead of
ten.

At a joint news conference in Moscow, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov spoke of his government’s `shock’ when the data was
published.

On Monday Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev ordered an inquiry. The
head of the country’s public broadcaster said he was `very worried and
surprised’ by the breakdown of the votes.

Eurovision fans in each of the 39 countries voted by text or phone and
their collective votes counted 50-50 with those of a professional
jury.

Russia’s ten `lost’ votes made no difference to the final outcome. Its
song came fifth, 17 points behind fourth-placed Norway.

From: A. Papazian