The show's host rejoiced in the fact that Lazarev had won the telephone vote. But this, he said, had been achieved in the face of an anti-Russian "information campaign".
The following day, actress Elena Drapeko, who is also deputy chair of the State Duma's culture committee, went even further, saying Lazarev's loss to Ukrainian singer Jamala was the result of an "information war".
This might seem a bit extreme. After all, Lazarev was third, not languishing in the lower reaches, as is the UK's perennial fate. But such talk of "information war" is now par for the course in Russia when it comes to reverses or criticism in the West.
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