KAZAN, May 22 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s contestant in this month’s Eurovision song contest said on Wednesday there was no need for an investigation into “lost” Azerbaijani votes for her performance.
“To be honest, I don’t know why an investigation is needed,” Dina Garipova said. “I am satisfied with the result of the contest.”
The row has dragged in both the Russia and Azerbaijani foreign ministers.
“We can’t be happy with the fact that ten points were stolen from our participant, primarily in terms of how this event is organized,” Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a joint news conference in Moscow on Tuesday with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov.
“We have agreed with Elmar Mammadyarov that…we will discuss joint measures to ensure that this outrageous action will not go unanswered,” Lavrov added.
Garipova, 22, finished in fifth place at the Eurovision finals in Malmo, Sweden, on Saturday with a total of 174 points. She did not receive a single point in the final televised count of Azerbaijan’s vote, while Russia gave the maximum 12 points to Azerbaijan’s Farid Mammadov, who came second overall.
The Azerbaijan authorities have questioned the vote tally, claiming votes for Russia were apparently “lost.”
Mammadyarov said on Tuesday that data from Azerbaijan’s three major mobile operators indicated Garipova had received the second-highest number of votes submitted via mobile phone text messages, giving her 10 points overall. The missing ten points would not have altered the overall results of the competition.
An investigation into possible fraud was underway, Mammadyarov added.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organizer of the Eurovision contest, on Tuesday rejected claims of any fault in counting Azerbaijan’s votes.