Russia Blog roundup – 21 May (the Eurovision special)

Commentary on Russia this week has been dominated by Europe’s campest, glitziest festival – yes, Moscow hosted Eurovision.  Happily for Russia’s finances, their entry didn’t win and they won’t have to host the finals again next year. 

But they could at least claim some glory in that Norway’s entry, Fairy Tale, was won by an elfin Belorussian singer called Alexander Rybak.  Belorussians, as everyone knows, are to Russians as Scots are to the English – that is to say, one of the family when they win, and outsiders when they lose.

Anyway, on with the Eurovision bloggers:

• Josefina provides a translation of Russia’s entry – Mamo.
• Also from Josefina is a post about a very odd Swedish video joke at Russia’s Eurovision expense – the song’s called Tingaling and Josefina’s got the translation.  I must confess, I’m still baffled.  See the end of this post for the video, or there’s more here at Virtual Collector.
• Vadim thinks that an insecure Russia tried too hard, and didn’t get the joke.
• La Russophobe just thought the Moscow Eurovision was a disaster – politicised, and surrounded by brutal crackdowns: “The world could only stand slack-jawed gaping at the unbounded horror of it all.”
• Natalia Antonova writes about Alexander Rybak’s “Sexy, Sparkly Multiculturalism”.
• James Barbour posts a roundup – and gets a little star struck at sharing a plane with the Andorran Eurovision entry.
• The Expatresse watched Eurovision for the first time.  Not being European, she “didn’t get” this particular piece of Euro-insanity, but had fun along the way.
• English Russia posts a picture that beautifully demonstrates that OMOH doesn’t like HOMO.

Also in Russia blogs this week:

• The 5 best designed Russia Blogs (and the 5 worst designed) are revealed over at Sublime Oblivion.  Siberian Light’s on one of the lists, but I’m not telling you which one!
• Otto explores the background to the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tartars.  Neeka also has some background, as well as pictures of a memorial event and an ongoing protest in Kiev.
• The Jamestown Foundation Blog published an interview with Pavel Felgenhauer – the well known defence analyst.
• Kyle unveils his revolutionary new way of assessing the Russian economy – the Egg Meter.
• James bemoans journalists’ hideous misuse of ‘From Russia with Love’ in news headlines: “Every time a journalist pulls this one out, I’m sure a small piece of Sean Connery dies.”
• Also from James, at Robert Amsterdam, news of a fistfight between Dmitry Medvedev and Hugo Chavez’s bodyguards.
• Russia unveiled its new national security strategy this week – the Power Vertical has the details.
• A Step at a Time reports on the 200,000 rouble fine given to journalist Yelena Maglevannaya – apparently she caused “moral damage” by writing about the torture of a Chechen prisoner.
• Two Duelling Scenarios on the Gazprom state, over at the Oil and the Glory.
• “There’s no better way to experience the delights of the Russian automobile industry than by hailing a “taxi” on the streets of any town or city of Russia.” says News from the Eastern. “And don’t be too surprised if your car happens to have a portable police siren stuck to the roof.”
• Eternal Remont tells the tale of two Irinas who wanted to get married in Russia but couldn’t, because it’s illegal for two Irinas to marry in Russia.  Happily, not all cold countries are quite so ignorant, and they’re off to Canada to get wed.
  

Well, that’s it for this week.  I’ll leave you with the odd Swedish video I mentioned at the top of this post…

And this comedy Russian song that didn’t quite qualify for the finals either…!

(thanks to Edward Lucas for that last one!)