Russia searches for and captures Ukrainian singer Jamala, winner of Eurovision 2016

The Russian Ministry of the Interior has included the Ukrainian artist Jamala, who won Eurovision in 2016, on its list of people wanted and captured.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
20 November 2023 Monday 04:05
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Russia searches for and captures Ukrainian singer Jamala, winner of Eurovision 2016

The Russian Ministry of the Interior has included the Ukrainian artist Jamala, who won Eurovision in 2016, on its list of people wanted and captured. At the moment, the Government has not clarified the charges against the singer.

Jamala, a 40-year-old singer-songwriter whose real name is Susana Alímonova, is "wanted under an article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation," says the Interior database, which has not indicated the crime allegedly committed by the artist. .

Jamala won the LXI edition of Eurovision, which took place in Stockholm, with the song she wrote '1944'. The song was dedicated to the Crimean Tatars after suffering mass deportations during Stalinism.

Jamala herself, like most Crimean Tatars, was born in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, a country to which her relatives were deported.

After the independence of Ukraine from the USSR in 1991, the singer was able to return with her family to Crimea, a peninsula that in 2014 was annexed by Russia after a controversial referendum not recognized by the international community.

Finally, in April last year, the artist was included in a list of Ukrainian artists who were banned from entering Russia for 50 years. Jamala has fought against Russia's military offensive on Ukraine in the form of activism.