The Eurovision Controversy

So the next Eurovision will be held in Ukraine. Back when Russia annexed the Crimea and invaded, Ukraine passed a law barring the Russian artists who have gone to perform in the occupied territories from traveling to Ukraine. This was done because it had become fashionable among Russian artists to travel to the occupied territories and not only engage in propaganda wars but, in some cases, to entertain themselves by shooting at live targets (human beings, I mean) and gleefully disseminate videos of this hunting on TV and YouTube.

So in order to stick it to Ukrainians, Russia dug out a wheelchair-bound singer and announced she was the Russian pick for the Eurovision. Ukrainians were left with the choice of either breaking their own law or refusing to let in a disabled person, which would make them look really bad.

This is such a petty, manipulative thing to do, especially since nobody in Russia ever showed the slightest interest in the rights of the disabled. Russia is in the midst of the most unhinged neoliberal eat-or-be-eaten outbreak, and the disabled are even being referred to as “subhuman” and “not real citizens” in school textbooks. But now all of a sudden the Russian media are howling with outrage over Ukraine’s reluctance to let in a disabled collaborator.

The pettiness of the whole thing beggars belief because Russia has massive problems with its economy. The public services are collapsing, the precious historic center of Moscow has been razed to the ground to make place for parking lots and supermarkets, dissidents are jailed and raped in prison, drug addiction is devastating the youth. But they are obsessed with fucking over the silly Eurovision just to be a nuisance.