Image shared widely online featuring the “Putin Rides” meme mixed with Sergei Lazarev’s performance.
Russia’s narrow defeat this weekend in the 2016 Eurovision music contest wasn’t the only tension in a competition full of lights, pyrotechnics, and nationalism. Even before the Ukrainian artist Jamala won with a song titled “1944” about the deportation of Crimean Tatars under Josef Stalin, Russia’s own representative, pop musician Sergei Lazerov, was at the center of a separate scandal for sharing unpopular views about Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
After placing third in the final scoring, Lazerov was treated largely as a national hero scorned by what many …read more
Source: Global Voices
