Russian prankster Vladimir “Vovan” Kuznetsov fooled Monica Babuc, Moldovan Culture minister, into believing that she was speaking to the Ukrainian minister of Culture on the day of the Eurovision Grand Final. The prankster asked if Moldova could give 12 points to Ukraine, and Monica Babuc was more than happy to oblige.
The prank was broadcast live by Russian TV station NTV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQRi0iP2oKA
Monica Babuc was told that the person at the other end of the line was her newly appointed Ukrainian counterpart Evgheni Nischuk, calling on behalf of Ukrainean president Petro Poroshenko. The Moldovan minister of Culture was very happy to help with the neighbour’s chances at Eurovision, even though she was not very familiar with the voting procedure — she was not even aware that there was also a jury involved — and she had not listened to Jamala’s song “1944”. Moreover, at some point she says that, if it were up to her, she would give Ukraine 24 points. She promises that she will talk to the management of Moldovan broadcaster TRM to see what could be done to award Ukraine 12 points.
However, we should note that the prank was made on the day of the Grand Final, one day after the Jury final, which means that Monica Babuc could not have influenced the jury score, which had already been submitted to the EBU. Moldovan viewers did award 12 points to Ukraine, although there is no proof that this was due to Monica Babuc’s influence. The minister stresses that she did not actually contact TRM, nevermind the jury, especially since the call was made two hours before the Grand Final.
For the record, three of the Moldovan jurors ranked Ukraine first, while the other two ranked it second. In case you were wondering, Russia was ranked third by two jurors, while the other three ranked it 4th, 9th, and 10th.
One of the Moldovan jury members is Lidia Scarlat, who wrote the lyrics to Cristina Scarlat’s entry “Wild Soul” two years ago. We asked Lidia if she was contacted by Monica Babuc and she told wiwibloggs that nobody contacted the jury and that she only found out about the prank after the day of the Jury Final, from the Russian media.
Asked about her reaction to the prank in a press conference today, Babuc denied once again that she contacted TRM and said that the best response was given by Jamala herself, who won Eurovision with a powerful song, a great voice, and a strong message. She added that “pranks are fun unless they have bad intentions behind them, in which case they become ugly.” According to her, the Georgian minister of Culture was also pranked.
Calls are being made for the Moldovan minister of Culture to step down, but Babuc said that she would not resign because she did nothing wrong.
What do you think about this prank? Should the Moldovan minister step down, even if she did not actually influence the jury? Or is the promise to influence the voting enough grounds for dismissal?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Kn7gLHoww
Political puppet!
Why did not you tell about Georgia? only about Moldova? And why did not you tell about Jamala, about her song ? What it actually is her song!
televoiting is more political then juri. Russia have 12 points only from old USSR-countries and Germany(a large diaspora) & Serbia(special relationship). Look at the Malta, Israel, Belgiem – they do not have a lot of neighbors and what they have from televoiting?
So when Sweden comes 3rd in the televote and wins people don’t really care.
But when Ukraine comes 2nd in the televote and wins it’s all bad?
Are people getting dumber or is it just me?
Scandalous victory by Ukraine this year will create a huge public opinion shift in Europe. It’s great. Finally people should take the power in their hands instead of being some manipulated extras in this cheap hoax organized by EBU and lead by the State Department.
Join!
Let’s show them that the People and not “professional” jury matters!
https://www.facebook.com/Well-boycott-Eurovision-2017-237324793310499/
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This situation is curiosal. It`s the best proof that rules of voting must be changed. Jury hurt Sergey. I understand he didn`t win in juries voting but half juries didn`t give him any point. Eurovision is song contest but juries created political contest.
The relevance of this article is as relevant as that full coverage of the red carpet on the youtube awards
In case someone watches it
Maldinga, also Putin’s puppet made very BIG mistake that can make only Russian idiot, he called Moldova as Moldavia! geez, after these words any Moldavan will be alarmed as they are very nationalistic and Ukraininas NEVER called Moldova as Moldavia. hey, that’s really funny how little things and arrogance can ruin the whole operaiton, nah? 🙂 btw. AN UPDATE: The result of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest remains valid and was reached in accordance with the rules agreed by each participating broadcaster and artist and known to every dedicated fan. Ukraine is, and will remain, the winner of the 2016… Read more »
Maldinga, ah yeah, and also as Ukrainian I know that everyone who can speak Russian can understand it’s accent when person speaks to you. Moldovan, as Ukrainians can tell the difference between Ukrainian person who speak Russian or Moscow inhabitant. I bet that Moldovan lady jut made a fun out of poor Putin’s puppet, just like our Ukrainian jury did the other day. why don’t you we speak about that attempt, eh? Oh, I just recalled fun situation in Moldova capital, where Russian provocators tried to pretend Ukrainian. Moldovans guessed their origin by their accent and gave em some “welcome”… Read more »
@Stan LOL 😀 A total of 6 mln Ukrainians live in Russia that’s who were voting for Jamala. And don’t you think that Russians gave 12 points to Armenia? 3 million Armenians live in Russia.
this is ridiculous. the way she was willing to help Ukraine get 12pts.
eastern countries and their juries are ruining the fun.
@Oxana your propaganda is actually very cheap and makes no sense. Who cares whose support the pranksters enjoy. The fact is that they have managed to show us that Moldovan jury are corrupt. And who understands Russian, will clearly realize from the conversation that such telephone calls are not seldom. They are a usual thing… That’s why Romania has always got 12 from Moldova and Ukraine 10. Will WBU take actions, of course not. They are on their vacations after earning money from 40mln European voters whose voices do not count any more.
Where are you from? 🙂
QwertyUser, I’m not paranoid. I see sequence of episodes, I see real intention and I was 100% sure it will happen. I’ve told you we’ll have scandal that Involve Russia and juries of other countries the same day I knew about their attempts. paranoid is what I call Russian ability to cry a river over their failure and with tears on their cheeks they start to flush dirt on everyone around, accusing many people in being corrupt and dishonest. dirt sticks to dirt, doesn’t it? how many of you started to believe in completely corrupted jury and started to question… Read more »
@ Ana – I personally wanted Ukraine to win (please read my review of “1944” in the Wiwi Jury), but as a journalist, I have to report the news, whether I like the news or not. We are not against Ukraine OR Moldova. Nor are we against Russia. Thank you for reading wiwibloggs.
@heyhey
If you look at the vote of the jury for Ukraine – all corrupt. 16 country – 0 points (WTF!?). These same countries (televoting) voted for Ukraine. #RIPEheyhey
If prankery called on behalf of Russia to Armenia.
The result would be the same
Although it is prankster, it shows how easy the jury votes can be altered. EBU is corrupt and recently there is a scandal that UK buy jury votes from Greece.
We can all see that this problem with the “professional” or I should call it unprofessional jury is much bigger and worse than just ukraine vs russia and armenia vs azerbaijan. EBU has to realy do something about it. This corruption present in the juries decision is 100 times worse than neighbourhood voting and diaspora voting.
My country cannot reach the final for years now and Russians are complaining for a 5th place in jury and 1st in televote ……..3rd overall ?
Really?!?!?
It’s a music contest, the result is amazing, the busy performance worked and the voters picked up their phones ….. That’s a win on itself, can they focus on other stuff instead of complaining about a music festival for days ?!?!
I guess the more brainwashed you are the more these irrelevant nationalistic things matter to you.
LET IT GO already.
Come sing, eat, meet fans and get over it…..
Oxana, you paranoid 😀 Russia may be disqualified because of a periscope. They would not have risked.
Proving that their are corrupt governments in Europe isn’t that hard… It does exist in Russia too. But people are too afraid to say it. So they said it by supporting the Ukranian entry in mass numbers!
I don’t even get the point of this article. Is this written by a Romanian or a Moldovan? Because it sounds like that, only we are the ones who write articles, ironically, against ourselves. What’s the point? Why do you desperately try to prove that Ukraine didn’t deserve the victory?Maybe you would be a much more respected blog if you wouldn’t make it sound so obvious that you wanted Russia to win. Once in their life, russians have to accept the defeat and not act like victims. Everyone would respect them if they accepted the 3rd place with dignity and… Read more »
This drawing was made on May 12 in front of the jury vote, and was shown on TV, only 14 of May, so that she could as the Minister of Culture of Georgia affect the results
Before moaning about jurys russians may want to answer how their jury is not political with 0 points to winner while televotes gave 10. But russians think only they allowed to be corrupt and political and others must be fair to them.
…However, we should note that the prank was made on the day of the Grand Final, one day after the Jury final…
That’s all.
and keep in mind that this is not just pranksters, they supported by Russian FSB and get any secret data they want to pull their prank. last time they called inside secured governmental lines of other country, pranked Erdogan and they are wanted for breaking law in Ukraine. Therefore if you’ll see that face outside Russia, please report it to your local police officer.
The most exciting part of this conversation is missing, when Jamala admits that her song is about 2014 not 1944, mentioning EBU, saying that THEY could disqualify her, like Georgia in 2009
they tried to prank Ukrainian jury too, I’ve told you about it long time ago. but wiwi won’t post this type of story about their mama Russia, right? 🙂 I’ll tell you what happened. Russia after periscoping their failure tried to abuse jury system in general. they pranked, tried to bribe, did anything possible to discredit jury and in this manner let their hired sms-spammes around the world to score a victory for Lazarev. They try to push it even now by demanding to remove/reduce jury and by publishing their pranks to back the idea that jury is useless and… Read more »
Join Arthur Hovhannisyan’s petition on change.org to investigate jurers. The petition has gathers 200k+ signatures at this time.
Eurovision should stop to be contest, let it be just festival, without scoreboards and results.
https://www.change.org/p/european-broadcasting-union-make-eurovision-song-contest-revise-the-results-of-the-song-contest-2016?tk=2CdgtA87wV2ojwD3Ig2i_RGwe5mLXjEieF2gIpY_HAs&utm_medium=email&utm_source=signature_receipt&utm_campaign=new_signature
i won’t be surprised if this is true tho.
AND NOW U KNOW HOW ITS DONE, NOW U KNOW HOW UKRAINE WON
Merci MrJoggy, obviously I had Cristina’s chorus in mind.
If the jury has 5 or 20 members, it will be the same when someone superior intervenes.
If you look at the vote of the jury for Russia – all corrupt. 21 country – 0 points (WTF!?). These same countries (televoting) voted for Russia. #RIPEUROVISION
The Moldovan entry from 2014 wasn’t “Mercy” but “Wild Soul”