Your trusted source

Azerbaijani “ITV” channel which broadcast the "Eurovision-2013" can either be deprived of participating in the song contest for three years or can be fined for false transfer of the vote count, the lawyer of the Russian law firm "UST" Denis Shumsky says, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

According to the agency, he explained that, regardless the disposition of Azerbaijan, which had revealed by itself the "shortage" of the votes, according to the ordinance of the sanctions of the competition primarily affect the broadcasting TV company.

"Formally, the contestants are not the countries but the TV companies, the members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), this means that most likely the result of this conflict will be an application of sanctions directed to the Azerbaijani TV company involved in the competition – TV channel ITV,” said Shumski.

He added that according to the song contest rules, if any violations are detected during the vote count, then the participating TV companies may be subject to sanctions, including exclusion from the upcoming shows for up to 3 years. Additional sanctions may also apply for violations which will make the 5 to 10% of the membership fee.

RIA "Novosti" reminds that the Azerbaijani authorities have publish data of the largest cellular communication operators, according to which Russia had taken the second place according to the number of votes cast by Azerbaijan at the "Eurovision" song contest, however Azerbaijan gave no points to Russia during the final vote count, while Russia awarded the Azerbaijani artist with the highest score - 12 points.

The topic of the "loss" of votes rose on Tuesday during the meeting of foreign ministers of Russia and Azerbaijan in Moscow. Minister Sergei Lavrov promised that Russia will not leave the issue of votes stealing unanswered, while his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov called the incident "a detective story," the agency says.