The result sparked a debate over the judges' objectivity, spurred in part by the composition of the judging panel, which included judges from four former Soviet bloc nations, including Russia. The Russian judge, Alla Shekhovtsova, was one of several people Sotnikova embraced prior to the flower ceremony. Over 1.7 million people signed a Change.org petition calling for an investigation into the outcome. That petition attracted a million signatures faster than any previous Change.org petition; at one point, it was attracting 100,000 new signatures every 15 minutes, with 90% of signatures coming from inside Korea.
