Lavrov vows response to failure to count Azeri votes for Russia's Eurovision entry
MOSCOW. May 21 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said it is outrageous that the votes given by Azerbaijan to the entry from Russian performer Dina Garipova in the Eurovision Song Contest were apparently not counted.
He promised that Russia would respond to this situation.
"The fact that 10 points were stolen from our participant is not good, especially from the point of view of how this event was organized. And we have agreed with [Azeri Foreign Minister] Elmar Mammadyarov that after Azerbaijan's Public Television finds legal ways to receive exhaustive explanations, we will discuss our joint measures to make sure that this outrageous action will not go unanswered," Lavrov said at a press conference after talks with Mammadyarov in Moscow on Tuesday.
Azerbaijan's decision to give Russia "nul points" at Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest in the Swedish city of Malmo caused a mixed reaction in Russia.
Azerbaijan called into question the event's voting results published on Monday.
Mammadyarov said at the same press conference that the results "received from all three cellular operators gave second place to Russia."
"It is certainly a question to our Public Television what happened to the votes [given for the Russian performer] and how they disappeared. It ought to investigate the situation further because it is a key partner of the European Broadcasting Union," the minister said. "It is necessary to continue the inquiry in order to establish what happened to the votes given by citizens of Azerbaijan for the Russian performer," Mammadyarov said.
Russia, for its part, gave the maximum 12 points to Azerbaijan's entry - a ballad by Farid Mammadov.
