European Broadcasting Union stands up for Russia's participation in Eurovision

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will exert necessary efforts to guarantee the participation of Russia's representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, the chairman of the Reference Group of the Eurovision Frank-Dieter Freiling told the German Tagesspiegel newspaper.

"From the very beginning we have made it clear that we expect that all the participants qualified for the contest could take part. If the decision to ban entry to the Russian candidate remains in force, the EBU will try to ensure that Russia could participate," Sputnik cited him as saying.

The chairman of the group established by EBU to oversee the yearly preparation of the contest added that the Ukrainian authorities had not informed the organizers about their decision on the issue.

According to the official, there is no need to speak about any other Russia's participant before the final decision of the Ukrainian side on Samoilova's participation.

On March 22, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) banned entry to the country for Russian 2017 Eurovision participant Yulia  Samoilova for visiting Crimea in 2015.