News - Russia: One month after the victory | Eurovision Song Contest News - 2009 Moscow, Russia 

Russian people used to joke, that besides two traditional questions, which they usually ask themselves - "Who is guilty (for all our troubles)?" and "What should we do (to cope with them)?" - there was one more important task. It was the question "When will we win Eurovision?" Now this goal has been attained and the Russians have got their answer.

Russia experienced a sense of real euphoria after Dima Bilan's victory in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. That feeling was enhanced due to achievements in other fields, ice hockey and football for example. Just a short time before Eurovision 2008 Russia won the World Cup in hockey and St. Petersburg club Zenit got the UEFA cup. People seemed to feel that good luck had come back to Russia after many years of defeats.

It also seems that to many a Eurovision victory signifies more than just winning a music contest, even if that is the largest one on Earth. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, told the press: "Not only goals, prizes and golden microphones are important. It's important that our country is firm again on the ground of European culture; it feels strong, independent and has something to say to the world".

At the same time the Russian press is still hotly debating Eurovision. Dima has occupied all magazine and newspaper covers and a lot of airtime is dedicated to him on radio and TV as well. But in spite of such massive personal attention, even from the Russian president himself and other high officials, local society is less positive about him than after his second place in Athens back in 2006.

Many critics said that Dima's professional level has gone down, and that his victory came about actually due to Olumpic figure skater Evgeny Pluschenko. Others concluded that it is a personal success of Bilan, but not Russia, as the song is composed by American author and performed in English.

Artemiy Troitsky, who is a well-known musical critic in Russia, said that after such countries like Moldova and Azerbaijan joined Eurovision, it became very pro-Russian, and Russia should really make an effort not to win the Eurovision Song Contest. Thus, Artemiy doesn't see anything extraordinary nor heroic in Dima Bilan's victory.

And of course Russian bloggers and internet users had a lot to say on Dima's victory. Great numbers of jokes and thousands of comments are written daily, some positive portraying a sense of national pride: "Hockey, football, Eurovision... It is time to begin the Word War 3! No doubt, Russia will win it too!" and some ironic such as: "The Russian football team could win Euro 2008, only if Pluschenko would skate in the central circle of the field." But overall, Russians are proud of their Eurovision victory, the greatest proof of that being the huge crowds flooding the streets on the night Dima won the crystal microphone for Russia.

Special thanks to Anton Kudrevich for the submission of the article.