Following the live broadcast of Anastasia Stotskaya, one of the Russian jury members for Eurovision Song Contest 2016, revealing votes and comments during the jury semifinal last night, the EBU along with Russian broadcaster RTR has decided to withdraw Anastasia’s role in the Russian jury.

The votes of the other four jury members are declared as legal and will stand as the jury vote of Russia for tonight’s semifinal. RTR has the option to set a new fifth jury member for the final.

RTR has expressed its regret and apologies for Anastasia’s behaviour, as well as to the Dutch and Armenian broadcasters AVROTROS and ARMTV for revealing the complete performances of Douwe Bob and Iveta Mukuchyan.

The live broadcast of the jury vote however, is not considered a breach of the rules. “The broadcast of the Jury Semi-Finals and Jury Final is an internal transmission, not meant for public distribution,”, said Jon Ola Sand, the Executive Supervisor of the contest on behalf of the EBU, however there is no problem with such kind of broadcast as long it does not reveal any of the jury’s rankings, combined rankings or total outcome of points.

Dr. Frank Dieter Freiling, Chariman of the Reference Group which governs the contest, has expressed his satisfaction regarding RTR’s reactions, “which reflects their understanding of what is and what isn’t appropriate behaviour of a judge for the Eurovision Song Contest” 

The first semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest will take place in less than three hours. The top ten countries out of tonight’s 18 participants, will advance to the grand final of the contest, that will be held on Saturday, 14 May.

Stay tuned to ESCToday for more news regarding the Eurovision Song Contest 2016