Bulgarian ESC 2017 entrant did not violate law by his 2014 Crimea visit – border guards

Earlier, a video of Kostov's performance in Crimea was uploaded on YouTube. The annotation to the video states that Kostov's performance on the peninsula took place on June 1, 2014, that is, a few months after the annexation of the peninsula by Russia. "At the time [Kostov] crossed into Ukraine in May, we had neither information nor instructions from other law enforcement agencies which would indicate that he might have violated Ukrainian laws," Slobodian said. Secondly, at the time when the singer allegedly visited the occupied peninsula, he was still a minor, so he could not personally make decisions and could only travel accompanied by adults, the spokesman said. "And thirdly, according to the media, he visited Crimea in June 2014, while the legislative norm that establishes responsibility for visiting occupied Crimea through closed border checkpoints came into effect only in November 2014, that is, at the time of his visit to Crimea, this was not regulated by law. As is known, the law does not have retroactive force," Slobodian said. As we have reported, Ukraine’s Security Service earlier banned Russian singer Yulia Samoilova from entering Ukraine for participation in the Eurovision song contest, since she performed in Russia-occupied Crimea in June 2015.