Philipp Kirkorov appeals to the European Court of Human Rights!

Philipp Kirkorov has decided to react strongly after the announcement of the Lithuanian Immigration Department a few days ago, that his name was added to a list of unwanted citizens who were banned from entering the Baltic country for the next five years. According to what was conveyed to us from the environment of the biggest pop star of Russia, he has already started the proceedings with his lawyers, to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

The chronicle of the case

On Tuesday, Lithuania’s Migration Department, acting on a request from the Foreign Ministry, added the Russian performer to the national blacklist of foreigners banned from coming to Lithuania, the Interior Ministry said in a press release.

The Foreign Ministry previously said that Kirkorov had been performing in Crimea, thus justifying Russia’s illegal anexation of the peninsula from Ukraine.

The minister then said that the well-known performer, who has a considerable fan base in Lithuania, made multiple visits to the annexed Crimean Peninsula and “deliberately denied the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and thus indirectly justified the aggressive actions of the Russian Federation”.

“We will systematically assess all the figures that Russia seeks to exploit to further its foreign policy [goals] and influence Lithuanian people,” the minister said.

Philipp Kirkorov appeals to the ECtHR

Philipp Kirkorov has decided to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to redress the injustice he considers to be being perpetrated by the Lithuanian Government. It is worth mentioning that Philipp Kirkorov is very popular in Lithuania, since every year he includes the country in his tour program. In 2019 he performed five sold out concerts in Lithuania. Apart from Russian, Philipp Kirkorov also has Bulgarian citizenship.

The decision of the Immigration Department therefore considers that it blatantly violates his rights and insults his personality, affecting his professional status, to the Lithuanian public, who love him very much.

In order for an individual appeal to the ECtHR to be admissible, the following two conditions must be met:

(a) a Member State of the ECHR has violated any of its provisions; and

b) the citizen has exhausted the domestic (national) remedies against this infringement.

The interesting thing is that Lithuania is currently the first in the bets for the victory in Eurovision 2021. So if the bets are confirmed and Philipp Kirkorov, as usual, will work with the Russia channel, to represent Russia in next year;s contest, we will probably have the repetition of the drama we experienced in 2017 in Ukraine, with Julia Samoylova.

Philipp Kirkorov has represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995. He has also been the composer, along with the Greek musician Dimitris Kontopoulos, in many Eurovision entries. This year he signs the entry with which Natalia Gordiengo will compete in Eurovision Song Contest for Moldova.

We will follow the issue and keep you informed!