Norwegian winner wows fans, but not gay activists

Alexander Rybak's Eurovision triumph might have smashed all records, but it was far from a "Fairytale" for Moscow's battered and bruised gay rights lobby.
Just hours before the Minsk-born Norwegian was crowned king of Eurovision, more than 30 protesters were arrested at Vorobyovy Gory, for staging an illegal demonstration.
Across town, the camp extravaganza that is the song contest rolled on, but Rybak's observation that Olimpiisky had hosted Moscow's biggest gay pride event drew an angry response from Nikolai Alexeyev of Gay Russia.
Alexeyev, one of the organisers of Saturday's banned demonstration, was detained overnight in police cells - and was scathing about Rybak's remarks.
"He obviously doesn't understand the real situation here," he said. "It's not a question of trying to do it on the same day - a gay march on any day would be banned and the result will always be the same."
Alexeyev added that he was "disappointed" with the attitude of the Eurovision organisers, who he claims offered no help or support, despite the event's huge popularity with the global gay community.
"These people are totally hypocritical," he said. "They will go home to their democratic countries but they should realise and understand what a shame it was to waste such a terrific opportunity to promote gay rights here in Russia."
Eurovision's PR manager Sietse Bakker was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press, though before the contest he was quoted saying that they were guests in Moscow and had to organise the show in line with local laws.
After the break-up of the rally outside Moscow State University generated international media coverage of the plight of Russia's homosexuals, organisers joked that Mayor Yury Luzhkov's ban had helped their cause.
But tongue-in-cheek suggestions of an award for the mayor - who was reckoned to have bagged the protests about 200 million roubles of free advertising - soon faded.
"The only award he deserves is ‘Homophobe of the Year' - which we give him every year," said Alexeyev. "We would prefer to be able to have a peaceful and legal protest against homophobia in Russia. But instead we have to go on the streets without permission, and risk arrest and violence."
Staff at Mayor Luzhkov's office declined to comment.
On-stage Eurovision was seen as a huge success, with the Olimpiisky's spectacular stage show hailed as the "best ever".
Rybak successfully reprised Dima Bilan's cheeky cherub charm from last year to poll a best-ever 387 points, and his Soviet origins had many Russian commentators claiming a home win despite Anastasia Prikhodko's mid-table finish.
There was controversy in the Caucasus, though, with Georgia staging its own protest show after the song "We don't want to put in" was disqualified, while neighbours Azerbaijan and Armenia became embroiled in a row over voting.
Armenia alleged that Azeri TV tried to stop viewers from voting for Yerevan's song, a claim since denied by the EBU. The two countries are at loggerheads over the Armenian-controlled Azeri province of Nagorno-Karabakh.