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"The decision reflects concern that, in the
light of the unprecedented crisis in Ukraine, the inclusion of a
Russian entry in this year's contest would bring the competition
into disrepute," the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said in a
statement.
Finland said on Friday it would not send contestants to the
final if Russia was allowed to participate. Public broadcasters
in Ukraine, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Lithuania and
Norway had all urged the EBU to expel Russia.
Russian military forces on Thursday began an invasion of
neighbouring Ukraine, prompting the imposition of economic
sanctions by Western powers, as well as the withdrawal of major
international sporting events from Russia.
The Eurovision final, one of the world's largest televised
events, takes place in Turin, Italy, on May 14.
Russia, which had yet to put forward a contestant this year, has
participated 23 times since its first appearance in 1994 and won
the contest in 2008.
The chairman of Ukraine's public broadcasting company Suspilne,
Mykola Chernotytsky, wrote to the EBU saying that "Russia's
participation, as an aggressor and violator of international
law, in this year's Eurovision undermines the very idea of the
competition".
He said Russia's state broadcaster was a "leading element of the
Russian government's information war against Ukraine".
Russia was one of the favourites for the competition in 2016,
when Crimean Tatar Susana Jamaladinova of Ukraine, known as
Jamala, unexpectedly won with a song about Soviet leader Joseph
Stalin's deportation of hundreds of thousands of people from her
Black Sea homeland, two years after Russia annexed the
territory.
The following year, as host of the finals, Ukraine barred
Russia's entry from entering.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Essi Lethi and Stine
Jacobsen; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Kevin Liffey)
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