9,100 attended, according to RIA Novosti's estimate

This weekend’s rally was smaller than many of the protests seen in Moscow recently. Rally organizers put attendance at around 25,000, but police estimates said the crowd was closer to 10,000 in size. RIA Novosti, who use special software to estimate crowd sizes, put the size at 9,100 with a margin of error of 15%, which indicates that the police estimate is the more accurate.

Although a few arrests were made – including Left Front leader Sergei Uldatsov – they were not of the scale seen at the previous weekend’s rally, where more than 500 were arrested.

A number of prominent opposition movement leaders addressed the rally, including Vladimir Ryzhkov, Garry Kasparov and Sergei Uldatsov. Notably, though, senior members of Russian opposition parties and the four defeated opposition candidates stayed away.

What next for Russia’s opposition movement?

It seems likely to be the last major protest that Moscow will see for a while.

Attendance has been gradually decreasing through the year and, without the focus of an upcoming election, it is unclear what direction Russia’s nebulous and politically disparate opposition movement will take over the coming months.

Some, disheartened by the apparent failure of the current methods of holding legally approved rallies, seem to be arguing for more direct action. Key proponents of this way forward include Sergei Uldatsov, leader of the Left Front movement, who was arrested at Saturday’s rally and at the previous rally. He seems to be supported by Alexei Navalny, who was arrested at last week’s rally and has recently called for a campaign of “civil disobedience”.

Many others, though, feel that opposition in Russia needs to move away from being in simple opposition and towards offering a genuine alternative to the current government, view expressed by Dmitry Gudkov, a member of the A Just Russia party who has been heavily involved in organizing a number of protests. In his blog, he wrote (RUS): “The next demonstration must not be ‘against’ but ‘for’. We need to move away from the format of ‘five minutes of hate’ and announce a plan of action, answer the question ‘What next?’ and demand the authorities conduct reforms.”

10,000 protest in Moscow against Putin is a post from: Siberian Light

Moscow Protests from earlier this year

What are the political parties doing?

The Communists have scored a bit of a coup by gaining permission to hold their rally at the prized Manezh Square in the centre of Moscow. Pro-Putin supporters had also requested permission to rally there, and eyebrows were raised when the Moscow authorities approved the pro-Communist rally ahead of the pro-Putin rally. The Communists’ cause was probably helped by only asking for permission for 5,000 people, whereas the pro-Putin organisers asked for permission for 200,000 people to cram into the centre of Moscow.

The pro-Putin rally is split into two parts. First, permission has been given for 40,000 people to march to the Luzhniki Sports Complex. Secondly, permission has also been granted for a 100,000 strong static rally at the sports complex itself.

A Just Russia and the Liberal Democrats have also applied to hold rallies in central Moscow on 23 February and, although not yet formally approved, it seems unlikely that they will be blocked. An organisation called Essence of Time has also applied for a permit to hold a 15,000 strong rally, which is expected to be pro-Government in nature.

And the independents?

For Fair Elections don’t seem to be planning a formal rally as such. Instead, they have a couple of interesting plans. The first, planned for 19 February, is a car-based protest which will involve people putting white ribbons on their cars and driving around their city, presumably in a pre-defined route.

The second is the intriguing idea of creating a human chain around the Kremlin on Sunday 26 February. The organisers think that this will need more than 30,000 people and, surprisingly, Moscow officials are indicating that this won’t require official permission.

Mikhail Prokhorov, the only independent rally in the Presidential race doesn’t seem to have a formal rally planned, as far as I can see.

Moscow gearing up for more rallies is a post from: Siberian Light

Moscow Protests

The rallies attracted between 75,000 and 200,000 people in total, but no-one really knows for sure how many attended. With all the different claims and counter-claims out there, it really depends on who you believe.

In fact, both the organisers from each side claimed attendance of 100,000 plus. The Moscow Times reports that its journalists on the scene estimated a turnout of 50,000 at the opposition rallies and around 25,000 at the pro-Putin rally.

Anti-Putin rally

The opposition rally, which focused on calling for a re-run of December’s disputed parliamentary elections and on opposing Putin’s bid for the Presidency, seems to have been a relatively peaceful affair, with far fewer reports of arrests than at previous rallies.

Although two of the candidates in the March Presidential election were due to attend the rally, only one showed up in the end. Mikhail Prokhorov took part in the rally, although strangely for a politician, declined the opportunity to make a speech. Sergei Mironov, who had previously promised to attend eventually decided to stay away entirely.

The organisers will no doubt be pleased overall with the way things went. This weekend’s march demonstrates that the opposition seems to be maintaining its momentum and is capable of repeatedly pulling tens of thousands (a hundred thousand if you believe the organisers claims) of people out onto the snowy streets of Moscow. This will give continued heart to those who oppose Putin’s re-election bid, and may also provide food for thought for those from the establishment who hope that opposition might melt after the election season is over.

Pro-Putin rally

The copmpeting pro-Putin rally was also well attended, although perhaps not as well attended as its organisers would have you believe.

There has been a lot of speculation as to whether the pro-Putin rally was a spontaneous as the opposition rallies, and whether those who attended did so because they truly believed in Putin or because they were coerced into attending – an example of the latter is this report from RIA Novosti of a schoolteacher who was allegedly fired for not ensuring that staff at his school attended the rally.

According to a reporter for the New Yorker, it was a bit of both:

“There were, as expected, people who had been paid to come; people who came out because of a work-place ‘initiative’; people who were less than fluent in Russian; and people who were less than sober. But there were also a lot of people who actually support Putin, either because they see no alternative to him, or because they really do like him.”

Putin has professed himself as pleasantly surprised by the strength of feeling of those who took to the streets to support him. So pleased, in fact, that he has offered to pay the fine that will be levied on the organisers for organising a rally that attracted more people than was allowed by their permit.

It will be interesting to see if Putin’s supporters will be able to keep up their momentum in the coming month – and worth remembering that half-hearted pro-Government rallies in places like Egypt have actually ended up hurting the government’s cause more than they helped.

Duelling Rallies in Moscow is a post from: Siberian Light

The results came as a bit of a surprise because they were slightly higher than the predictions of the state’s information agency, Rosstat, which had believed that the population was 141,837,976.

The census is generally regarded as being fairly accurate, although some people have expressed concerns about the way it was organised.

The Rise and Fall of Russia’s Population

Population growth (and decline) from 1950-2010

The population reduced so much mostly as a consequence of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The economy fell sharply as Russia transitioned from a communist economy to a capitalist economy, resulting in lower living standards (which ultimately meant higher rates of death) and reduced confidence in the future (which meant that people had fewer children).

Today the Russian population decline has slowed, and there is evidence that Russia’s population is gradually rising again. Therefore, although there is no detailed Russia population 2012 data, it’s reasonable to assume that the population is around the same level as the census results indicate, and possible very slightly higher.

Russian Cities

Moscow - Largest City in Russia

Moscow is the largest city in Russia and the sixth largest in the world. Census data shows that 11.5 million people live in Moscow. That figure doesn’t quite reflect the true population, however, as it only includes people who have permanent residency in the city. As well as people with permanent residency, it’s estimated that there are 1.8 million people who are legally living in Moscow on a temporary basis, and around 1 million people who are living illegally in Moscow. Adding all these together would make Moscow’s total population 14.3 million people, which would actually make it the world’s second largest city.

Although St Petersburg is no longer the capital city of Russia, it is still an important European city, and the second largest city in Russia. 4.5 million people live in St Petersburg, according to the census results, although it is likely that temporary and illegal residents would increase the city’s size to closer to 5 million people.

Ethnicity and Religion in Russia

Map showing distribution of ethnic Russians throughout Russia

Religion is not officially measured, but surveys show that Orthodox Christians are the largest group within Russia with 73% of Russians claiming that particular faith. Around 6% of Russians are Muslims, and almost all of the rest declare that they have no religion.

Russia Population 2012 is a post from: Siberian Light

Numbers are difficult to judge, but it appears that around 5-6,000 people protested earlier in the day, breaking off into a smaller group of around 1,000 that then went on to Triumfalnaya Square. It was there that most of the trouble took place, and according to RIA Novosti, more than 250 people were arrested, including Sergei Mitrokhin, Yabloko’s deputy chairman and former Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov.

“I am outraged at the lawlessness that we saw on 4 December, with the false elections, and on 5 December,” Mitrokhin told reporters. “I am ready to call for the entire government, headed by Putin, to resign.”

Navalny tweeted this picture, saying "With my lads on the police bus. They all say hi,"

Protests were also held in St Petersburg which attracted around 1,000 people, 150 of whom were arrested, and smaller protests were held in a number of other cities across the country.

The protests prompted counter-protests from pro-Kremlin activists, many from Nashi.

The protests, and criticisms of fraud throughout the election, have prompted some response from the Kremlin, albeit a pretty limited one. President Dmitry Medvedev has announced that there will be an investigation of accusations of electoral fraud claims, although he seemed fairly dismissive of most of the claims and took pains to stress that this was something that should be done after every election as a matter of procedure. Putin hasn’t directly commented on the protests, although he doesn’t seem surprised about protests and criticism if this Moscow Times report is anything to go by:

Corruption and embezzlement “are not a cliche for the ruling party, they are a cliche for the authorities” in general, Putin said.

“Think back to Soviet times and the people who were in power back then. All of them were also called thieves and bribe-takers,” Putin said, in a clear nod to United Russia’s reputation as the “party of crooks and thieves,” Interfax reported.

(An interesting choice, by the way, to compare United Russia’s Government to the Soviet Government. It’ll play well with those in the domestic audience who crave stability and familiarity, but it’ll wind up amny protestors and the foreign audience no end.)

Speaking of the foreign audience, there has been a quite excitable reaction from the international press, many of whom seem to be breathlessly hoping for a Russian Arab Spring (no longer do they refer to a colored revolution…) and choosing to focus on the crackdown and the sending of troops in to secure Moscow. My favourite headline was this, from the never knowingly under-stated Fox News: Carnage Breaks Out at Moscow Protests as Youths Square Off.

For all the hype, it’s almost possible to imagine that this week’s protests will build any real momentum. No matter how much breathless reporting we see, the protestors number no more than a few thousand in a city of millions.

However, the protests may have a longer term impact in raising the profile of election fraud among the wider population and in exposing some small cracks in the Kremlin’s resolve ahead of next year’s Russian Presidential election, which has the potential to be a much closer affair. You can imagine that there would be considerable anger if Putin were to pick up 51-52% of the vote in a first round ballot that sees the same obvious manipulation of ballots that we’ve seen this election in Chechnya and other similarly sycophantic regions.

The Communist Party’s candidate Gennady Zyuganov is most likely to finish second in the Presidential election. He and his supporters will have good reason to be very upset if he is denied a run-off due to electoral fraud. If Zyuganov has any sense, he’ll be closely studying these Moscow protests and thinking about how much impact they could have if they were backed by the full weight of the Russian Communist Party.

Then maybe the press will have something to get breathless (and even more confused than normal) over.

Moscow Protests: For now or the future? is a post from: Siberian Light

The decision to award the first Russian World Cup Tournament, coming just a couple of years after Russia won the right to host the 2014 Olympics in Sochi demonstrates that Russia has been able to convince the world that it is ready to host major sporting events – there are no bigger world sporting events than the Olympics and the Football World Cup. The test now, for Russia, will be to prove the doubters wrong, and host two spectacular tournaments that make the rest of the world green with envy!

The World Cup voting

FIFA’s decision, announced this afternoon in Zurich, comes as a bit of a surprise to many. The voting was actually pretty decisive, though – Russia won in the second round of voting, by a pretty hefty margin.

Although Russia’s bid was fairly strong overall, it was technically rated the weakest of the three main Word Cup bids by FIFA examiners, behind the England bid and the joint Spain / Portugal bid – the biggest problem being thought to be the massive distances that fans would need to travel and Russia’s weak and vulnerable air transport infrastructure. In many pundits’ eyes, it was the weakest of the three main bids, overall.

However, the examiners did note that Russia had promised to invest massive amounts in new football stadiums, which would leave the country with a tremendous legacy from hosting the World Cup. It seems that this must have swayed the FIFA delegates, and been a more important consideration that travel and other infrastructure problems when it came time to vote. The same considerations seem to have been key in their decision to award the following 2022 World Cup to Qatar, another developing country that would see a massive boost from hosting a World Cup.

England, many pundits favourite before the vote, received very few votes (to be precise – England received 2 votes!) and were knocked out in the first round of voting. Although you can make a good argument that England wouldn’t have been the ideal host, the number of votes that England actually received is dramatically lower than you would expect, given the evident quality of their bid. It looks like the accusations of corruption among FIFA executives by the British media may well have done irretrievable damage to the English campaign. This is sad, not just for the English bid, but for Russia too – given Russia’s reputation as a generally corrupt country, this will do nothing but fuel the flames for those critics who will claim that Russia won the right to host this World Cup by bribing FIFA officials.

Russia World Cup Format

Spanning a massive area, hosting a World Cup in Russia was never going to be an easy challenge. The Russian Football Federation have solved it with a plan that will see matches hosted in 16 stadiums spread across 13 Russian cities. The cities have been divided into four clusters, to keep group stage matches in the same geographical area, and the Russian World Cup Final will be held in the Moscow Luzhniki Stadium.

Here’s a pretty infographic from RIA Novosti to give you a graphical idea of how the World Cup will be organised:

Russia’s bid for the 2018 FIFA World Cup

12:17 02/12/2010 The national concept stipulates World Cup matches at 16 stadiums in 13 cities comprising four clusters>>

Other news of the day

Reaction

Russian President Vladimir Putin decided not to speak in favour of Russia’s bid in Zurich – lets face it, because he didn’t want to be associated with a losing bid. So he’s now in the embarrassing position of having to rush over to Zurich. He explained his about face, unconvincingly:

“I am going to Zurich. I promised members of the Executive Committee that if the decision was made in Russia’s favor, I would certainly come to thank them personally and speak about our preparation plans.”

Putin went on to say:

“I would like to thank the members of the FIFA executive committee for their decision, that they trusted us with staging the football World Cup. I would like to assure the FIFA leadership that we will do everything possible to ensure that the 2018 World Cup is staged at a deserving level.”

Your views

What do you think? Was Russia’s success deserved? Will the Russian World Cup be a success, or will Russia struggle to host such a major tournament?

Russia World Cup Hosts! is a post from: Siberian Light

It has never been officially weighed, but is estimated to be approximately 190 carats, which makes it one of the largest cut diamonds in the world – at one point it was the third largest cut diamonds known.

The Orlov diamond, which is sometimes also referred to in older style spelling as the Orloff diamond is not, as many people wrongly assume, a Russian diamond. Instead it originally comes from India, and has a fascinating back-story (not much of which can be verified – but it makes a great tale, nonetheless).

An amazing find, it was incorporated into a statue in the Sri Rangandathawamy Temple of Srirangam, where it served as the statue’s eye. It stayed in temple until a French soldier heard of it. It is thought that he deserted from the French army and converted to Hinduism, solely so that he could gain access to the diamond – the temple was located on an island, and Christians were not allowed to enter. It took the soldier several years, but he eventually gained access to the temple and stole the diamond.

The soldier quickly escaped to Madras, in British controlled India and sold the diamond to an English captain for �2,000 – a massive sum at the time. The diamond was transported to England, and quickly sold on for �12,000 – a sum which we can assume left the ship’s captain a very rich man – to a Persian dealer.

At around the same time, Grigory Orlov, a Russian count had been busy advancing his political career by seducing Catherine the Great of Russia. When they met she was married to Peter III, the Emperor of Russia, and they are said to have had a passionate affair before Orlov helped her to depose her husband in the coup that led to her becoming Empress of Russia. However, the relationship did not last, and Orlov soon fell out of favour at the Russian court.

It was while trying to find a way back into Catherine’s favours that Orlov came into contact with the Persian merchant. He bought the diamond that was soon to become named after him for a reported 400,000 Dutch Florins, and presented it to Catherine on Catherine’s day 1766, in lieu of flowers.

Catherine accepted the diamond, named it after Orlov, and had it placed into a sceptre designed especially to house the diamond. The gift didn’t, however, win Orlov back his place in Catherine’s affections.

The diamond is now regarded as one of the most famous Russian diamonds, and is on display at the Kremlin in Moscow.

(Note: The Orlov Diamond should not be confused with the Black Orlov diamond which, as its name suggests, is black in colour. This diamond is also reported to be of Indian origin, but this is thought to be inaccurate. It is privately owned, and not on display at the Kremlin.)

Orlov Diamond is a post from: Siberian Light

According to the British Embassy:

Research suggests that this is the first time British troops have marched on Red Square

How much research they actually did is pretty questionable, considering that this picture was taken less than three years ago:

Yes, that’s right – a large contingent of Scottish bagpipers marching through Red Square, looking suspiciously like members of the British military.

Think it’s photoshopped? Check out the video:

They’re marching and playing in the first Russian Military Tattoo, also known as the Kremlin Zoria Festival, which took place in 2007. If you look carefully, you can see representatives from the 1st Battalion Scots Guards, the Royal Scots Borderers, the Black Watch, the Highlanders, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, the Royal Air Force, and the Royal Corps of Signals. Plus a whole host of military musicians from other Commonwealth countries.

British marching bands were set to attend the second Tattoo, in 2008, as well, but the Russia-Georgia war put paid to that plan.

Much more about the Moscow Military Tattoo here, including links to lots more pictures. Here’s my absolute favourite.

British Troops March in Red Square is a post from: Siberian Light

Soviet music lovers who had grown up on a diet of bootleg Beatles were keen to see their heroes in the flesh. The question was, who would be the first hero to come and visit?

Step forward our hero – Billy Joel, who stumped up $2.5 million of his own cash, and became the first American rock star to tour the Soviet Union with a fully staged show.

In all, Joel played six concerts – three in Moscow, three in Leningrad. Each concert played to a packed house, but not all of them went exactly according to plan as confused and subdued audiences took a while to warm up to the sight of Joel bouncing around the stage to his high energy music.

The problems were partly because many in the audience had no idea how to behave at a rock concert. In the early concerts, especially, tickets were given away to Communist Party functionaries, as a perk, rather than to rock fans. Unsurprisingly, with much to lose and not quite sure how to behave, many stayed awkwardly seated at first.

The technical crew’s decision not to turn down the concert hall lights didn’t help, either. They had a good reason – they were filming a documentary of Joel’s tour and wanted him to look good on screen – but the harsh lighting served only to intimidate the audience into staying firmly in their seats.

A frustrated Joel dealt with the problem in true rock style. He tipped over his piano and trashed the stage.

Joel later recounted:

“Remember, this was the Soviet Union in 1987, and they’d never had a major rock concert before. There was a film crew filming a documentary, and they turned very bright lights on the audience. The audience was having a good time�until they turned the lights on. They froze; they turned paranoid. There was a lot of anxiety�why are we being looked at? And whenever they turned the lights on, anyone who was overreacting was being pulled out of the audience by a security guard. I wasn’t yelling at the audience�I was yelling at the film crew. So I threw the piano, and that got their attention. Then they stopped lighting the audience, and everybody started rocking out.”

The New York Times, in a 1987 article, approvingly explained how Joel’s passion (combined with a well timed rendition of the Beatles’ Back in the USSR) won over the crowd.

The audience, as is often the case with Soviet rock concerts, was much more heavily weighted to staid Russian matrons and button-down men in their 40′s than to the young people who predominate in Western rock audiences. But at the end, the matrons were clapping and gyrating along with their children.

”Back in the U.S.S.R.,” Mr. Joel sang to them, after the chants of ”Bee-lee, Bee-lee,” brought him back for an encore. ”You don’t know how lucky you are, back in the U.S.S., back in the U.S.S., back in the U.S.S.R.” Soldiers Keeping Time

By the time that Beatles song had ended, even the soldiers were keeping time, the rhythmic bouncing of their knees looking oddly incongruous below their stern faces.

I said above that Joel was the first American rock star to tour the USSR with a fully staged show. That’s a true claim, but it has to be said, a hyped one, made by Joel and his entourage. Other Western rock stars had been to the Soviet Union before, notably Elton John in 1979, and Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Santana, and the Doobie Brothers who had headlined the joint Soviet-American ”Summit” concert held in Moscow earlier in 1987. But Joel was the first to tour with a fully fledged, American style rock show.

Joel sunk $2.5 million of his own money into making this tour happen, and needed it to be a big success – not just in the Soviet Union, but in the rest of the world too. So the tour was hyped up mercilessly. In an attempt to recoup his money, the concerts were simulcast on radio around the world, a live concert album was released, an HBO special was aired, and a documentary of the tour was released on video.

Joel reportedly never made back all of his $2.5 million, but the impact in the Soviet Union was huge. It inspired future cultural exchanges – Russian rockers Boris Grebenshchikov and Gorky Park were inspired to release albums in America – and inspired regular Soviet citizens. Just take a quick look at the excitement shown in this archive US news footage (sorry, embedding for this video has been disabled, so you’ll have to visit Youtube directly).

Billy Joel's historic Soviet concert tour is a post from: Siberian Light

Russia hosted the Eurovision a couple of years ago. They put on a fabulous (and very expensive) show, but it looks like they’ve decided it’s far too costly to ever take the chance of winning again – there surely can’t be any other reason that explains why they picked the truly dreadful Lost and Forgotten by Peter Nalitch, and the equally bad Get You by Alexej Vorobjov this year.

Anyway, what better way is there to celebrate Russia’s decision to never again host Europe’s premier singing contest than to take a run through the YouTube videos of every single Russian Eurovision Song Contest entry – ever! That’s nearly two decades’ worth of top notch Russian Europop – t.A.t.U, Mumy Troll, Alsou, Dima Bilan, Peter Nalitch and now Alexej Vorobjob – we’ve got them all!

No – there’s no need to thank me. Really. No need at all.

2010 – Alexey Vorobyov – Get You – (Place: TBC)

Alexey Vorobyov (also known by the English translation of his name as Alex Sparrow) has tried to win Eurovision Song Contest qualification for a few years now, and with Get You he’s finally made it. Sadly, I’m not sure if the ladies are going to swoon for his dashing good looks or in horror at hearing the song…

2010 – - Lost and Forgotten – (Place: 11th)

Peter Nalitch, some of you will remember is the Russian architect who had a massive viral hit in 2007 with his cheesy song Gitar. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Peter Nalitch Eurovision video ‘Lost and Forgotten’, possibly the dullest, sleepiest ballad to grace Eurovision since, well, since last year probably.

2009 – Anastasia Prikhodko – Mamo – (11th)

Mamo, Russia’s 2009 Eurovision song has already proved controversial. Sung partly in Ukrainian, by a Ukrainian singer who only entered after she had failed to win the Ukrainian Eurovision contest – what could there possibly be to complain about?

2008 – Dima Bilan – Believe (1st)

Russia’s first Eurovision victory came courtesy of Dima Bilan’s Belive. Already a successful pop star back home in Russia, Dima Bilan won the competition on his second attempt – beating his second place finish in Eurovision 2006.

2007 – Serebro – Song #1 (3rd)

Serebro – which means Silver in Russian – were a previously unknown three girl band. They’ve translated their third place finish in Eurovision 2007 into some limited success in Russia – although it’s taken them until April 2009 to release their first full album.

2006 – Dima Bilan – Never Let You Go (2nd)

Dima’s first stab at Eurovision glory was mostly memorable for his wearing of a white tank top. A true crime against fashion.

2005 – Natalia Podolskaya – Nobody Hurt No One (15th)

A rockin’ little anti-American anti war ditty (Hello sweet America / Where did our dream disappear? / Look at little Erica / All she learns today is the fear”). About the best that can be said is that it inspired Russia to take the contest seriously again the following year.

2004 – Yulia Savicheva – Belive Me (11th)

Possibly Russia’s dullest Eurovision entry. Nuff said.

2003 – t.A.t.U – Ne ver’, ne boisya, ne prosi (3rd – robbed!)

Russia’s most controversial (and best publicised) Eurovision effort by far. All you need to know is that controversy kicked off with a formal enquiry to the Eurovision board ahead of the contest that asked whether performers had to wear clothes, and finished with claims that the faux-lesbian duo, who were beaten by just three points, had been robbed by “unlikely low points” given by other countries.

2002 – Prime Minister – Northern Girl (10th)

Another one of those dull songs that Eurovision throws up from time to time. Take my advice, and don’t waste your time listening.

2001 – Mumiy Troll – Lady Alpine Blue (12th)

Russia took the brave decision in 2001 to send rock band Mumiy Troll to Europe’s premier pop song contest. The veteran rock band were formed back in 1983 (so far back into Soviet history that Gorbachev wasn’t even the boss) and, although I like the song, I don’t think it’s a moment they’ll consider their finest…

2000 – Alsou – Solo (2nd)

After the 1998-99 debacle (see ‘interlude’ below) Russia decided to get serious and send a real contender to the 2000 contest. Alsou’s Solo hit all the Eurovision buttons – sexy lady in skimpy costume, catchy tune, sung in English – and was unfortunate not to pull off Russia’s first victory. It had the misfortune to come up against that rarest of things – a decent ballad from Denmark that stormed to victory.

Alsou, by the way, will be hosting the 2009 Eurovision contest in Moscow.

Interlude: 1998-1999

Russia selected Tatyana Ovsienko as their entrant for the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest, only to be informed that, because they’d been so rubbish over the past few years – also called having a low average score – they weren’t eligible to actually send an entrant.

Naturally, Russian TV channel ORT decided – on the entirely sensible grounds that no-one in Russia would watch a four hour song contest if no-one from Russia was singing – not to show the contest live.

Fatal mistake.

Russia would have been able to send an entrant to the following contest, in 1999, but because they’d failed to televise the 1998 contest, under Eurovision’s rules, Russia was barred from sending an entry.

Lesson learned, Russia duly televised the 1999 contest, even though there wasn’t a Russian entrant.

1997 – Alla Pugachova – Primadonna (15th)

Alla Pugachova is one of the true survivors of Soviet music. An icon in Russia, she was the last artist to win the prized “People’s Artist of the USSR” award.

Unsurprisingly, the rest of Europe were not impressed by this hearty ballad.

1996 – Andrei Kosinskiy – I am what I am (did not qualify for final)

For the second time in three years, Russia failed to make it to the final. Here’s the video anyway – Michael Bolton eat your heart out.

1995 – Philip Kirkorov – Lullaby for a Volcano (17th)

Apparently, according to a Eurovision historian (yes, there are such things), Kikorov’s entry is most interesting because Russian TV implied that he had won by ending transmission after his performance and not bothering to show the voting. In reality, Lullaby for a Volcano finished a disappointing 17th out of 23.

1994 – Youdipph – Vechni Strannik (9th)

Russia’s first Eurovision entry also marked the first time that a Eurovision song had been sung in Russian.

A solid if unspectacular debut, Wikipedia regards it as being notable for the red cape worn by singer Maria Kats. I have to say, it is very cool – she looks like a kind of Soviet Batman…

Note: This post is a rewritten version of a post from 2007 – which is why you will see some very old comments below.

Every Russian Eurovision video – ever is a post from: Siberian Light