North Vision Song Contest • General Discussion

I'm all for kicking the governments of Russia and Belarus out of NVSC, and not allowing pro-Putin artists, but there were some things that rubbed me the wrong way about the last announcement.

Trying to frame this as a fight for 'freedom' and 'democracy' is pretty problematic.

First of all, that's not really what this ban is about. Russia denying democracy to their own citizens is a different issue from the war crimes and human rights violations going on in Ukraine (even if they are connected).
Should Turkey and Azerbaijan be kicked out of the contest too? No, because that would be pointless.

Secondly, even if it's unintentional, the language used in the announcement is a lot like the narrative countries like the USA have used to justify overthrowing regime after regime in the developing world. ( "spreading the freedom around the globe" )

The new representation of these countries should be presented as a way for Russians and Belarusians to participate in the contest independent of their government (like Russia in the 2021 Olympics).

So I get changing the flags, but what are "Free Russia" and "Free Belarus" supposed to mean? Are they meant to be new governments (in-exile)? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it comes off like the NBU is saying regime change is the end goal of this ban. (And there's also negative implications in putting 'Free' in the name of a country (e.g. Congo Free State, Irish Free State))

TL;DR - Democracy is great and all, but don't feed into this BS about the west wanting to "spread freedom" worldwide. And fuck Russia either way.

I still respect the NBU's decision regarding all this, but I just had to say something.