Singer Yulia Samoilova, who will not have a chance to participate in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest scheduled to be held in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev in May, will represent Russia at the contest in 2018.
Channel One earlier decided to cancel the broadcast of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in light of the entry ban issued by the Ukrainian authorities against the Russian contestant.
“We have held talks on that with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) so they know that Yulia Samoilova will represent Russia,” Ernst said when asked if Russia would participate in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.
The Channel One director pointed out that the EBU should understand that the contest would lose a large part of its audience since Russia had cancelled the broadcast. “The European Broadcasting Union made its choice. I believe that as the contest’s organizers, they should, first and foremost, ensure that the contest’s rules are respected while the rules do not provide a host country with the right to impose restrictions on participants,” told Russia’s Channel One Director Konstantin Ernst.