May 5th, 2017 - Fort Russ News -
- Agencies - - by Samer Hussein -
A Soviet-era friendship monument in central Kiev has been repainted as a rainbow amid preparations for the Eurovision Song Contest.
The Ukrainian capital city of Kiev is preparing to host the Eurovision Song Contest, whose main theme this year is ‘Celebrating Diversity’. The event will be held next week.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko ordered the Friendship of Nations Arch, famous monument, originally dedicated to the unification of Ukraine and Russia within the Soviet Union and which is located in the heart of Kiev, to be repainted in the colours of rainbow.
The monument also serves as a symbol of the city’s LGBT community and will be used as such during the forthcoming Kiev Pride event, scheduled to take place in June.
Gennadiy Kurochka, head of the CFC Consulting, a PR company which is helping to organise the Eurovision Song Contest, said: “The Arch calls to celebrate diversity. Diversity in all its meanings: racial, linguistic, musical, sexual.”
“I consider the Ukrainian society to be free and open-minded enough to respect any manifestation of diversity, which we tried to convey via this art piece.”, he added.
Not everyone in the Ukrainian society is happy about the move, though. Members of the far-right groups staged several protests and according to some, this was the reason why part of the monument remained unpainted. However, Vitali Klitschko, Kiev’s major, later told Reuters that the unpainted part will eventually be decorated with Ukrainian national symbols.
Since Maidan provocation back in February 2014 that eventually resulted in the ongoing conflict in Donbass, lots of Soviet-era statues and monuments were damaged or dismantled.
According to many, the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, Ukrainian victory including, was deeply influenced by politics. The Ukrainian winner, a Tatar-born singer named Jamala performed a rather politically provocative song about the alleged Soviet “ethnic cleansing” of Crimean Tatars. Many argued that the song shouldn’t have been permitted to enter the contest due to propagandist nature of its lyrics and which are not in accordance with the ethics of Eurovision Song Contest.
On top of that, the Ukrainian authorities banned Russian performer Yulia Samoylova from entering the country, upon discovering that she not long ago performed in Crimea.
Russia is said to boycott the politically charged event entirely.
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