Dutch broadcaster threatens boycot of Eurovision Festival May 16

The first cloud in this gathering storm over Moscow on Saturday arrived earlier this week in the form of the singer Gordon Heuckeroth, a contestant in the Eurovision song festival's Dutch trio The Toppers -- and who is openly gay. He has threatened to fly back to Holland if the police used any violence against the planned Slavic Pride parade on Saturday - as such gay-rights demonstrations have been suppressed with considerable violence in Moscow in the past. The authorities have banned this gay-rights parade, but the organisers said they would go ahead with it anyway, despite counter-demonstrations being threatened by anti-gay groups. On Tuesday, Gerard Dielessen, the director of the Netherlands' National Broadcasting Service (NOS) also said NOS would 'reconsider its cooperation with the Eurovision Song Festival final in Moscow' if there is a violent crack-down on the planned gay-pride that Saturday.

Song Festival NL Dutch singer Gordon Heuckeroth, participating in the Dutch trio The Toppers at the European song festival in Moscow, is openly gay. He threatens to boycot the finals if the Moscow police crack down on the gay-rights demo planned for May 16. image:51152:4::0

The Dutch minister of culture, MP Ronald Plasterk moreover backed up this statement -- by saying in in reply to parliamentary questions raised about the issue on Tuesday that he also would 'be conveying his concerns' to the Russian ambassador, the Russian cultural affairs department minister - and would also ask secretary of state Frans Timmerman to raise the issue of the ongoing violence used against gay-pride demonstrators in Moscow at this week's international gay-rights meeting in Paris. Dielessen said on Tuesday in an interview with De Telegraaf newspaper that it was 'very logical' that Gordon would want to to leave the city in protest in case of renewed violence against the gay-pride parade on Saturday. If it turns into a battle... And, Dielessen added: "if the demonstration gets out of hand, and I mean if it turns into a battle, we (NOS) would have to reconsider our participation and our broadcasting the TV show (of Eurovision)." see Meanwhile, the Olympiysky Arena in Moscow has been a hive of rehearsals and frenzied activity for the past two months to get ready for this week's televised extravaganzas, being broadcast all over Europe via Eurovision.tv and the internet.

Nikolai Alexeyev At past gay-rights demonstrations in Moscow, police have cracked down hard on activists such as Nikolai Alexeyev, pictured here during an arrest. image:51146:4::0

At an earlier press conference of the Moscow Pride movement, its organisers said it would go ahead with the "Slavic Pride' parade on May 16 despite it being banned by Moscow authorities. Speaking at the Moscow Pride press conference were Nikolai Alekseev, chief organizer, Irina Fet, Sergey Androsenko, Maria Arbatova, feminist and writer, and Edward Murzin, former deputy and head of movement “Tolerance”. see Counter-demonstrations have also been announced by the Orthodox-Christian Youth League and other anti-gay demonstrators. All in all, it promises to be an interesting day in Moscow this Saturday, with the city having pulled out all the stops to turn the Eurovision Song Festival into a propaganda showcase for Russia and for Moscow.