Putin announces plans to hold music competition “Intervision” this year

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday, the 3rd of February, on the organisation of an international music contest “Intervision” in Russia, which will take place in Moscow this year after Russia was banned from taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest, according to the Moscow Times and Barron’s.
Russia was banned from Eurovision in 2022 following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin decree sets out a plan to hold an alternative contest in Moscow and the region, called “Intervideniye” or “Intervision” in Russian, with the aim of “developing international cultural and humanitarian cooperation”.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko has been appointed chairman of the organising committee.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced in December that more than 25 countries, including several Latin American countries, had expressed interest in participating.
Putin’s special representative for international cultural cooperation, Mikhail Shvydkoy, said earlier that the contest would be held in September 2025, adding that some 20 countries have confirmed their participation, including all members of the BRICS and CIS bloc.
The Kremlin decree did not specify a date for the contest.
The Intervision music contest was originally a Soviet-era event held from 1965 to 1968 and then from 1977 to 1980, and mainly featured countries from the Eastern Bloc, including Poland and Czechoslovakia. In 2014, Russia announced plans to revive the contest, but they failed.
Many Russian artists have taken part in Eurovision, including Alla Pugacheva, Filip Kirkorov, Little Big and Manizha. Singer Dima Bilan remains the only Russian winner of Eurovision, with his song “Believe” in 2008.
In 2009, the contest took place in Moscow at its Olympic Stadium.
Russian lawmaker Liliya Gumerova told TASS on Monday that the “Intervision” contest would be “an opportunity to promote real music” and not “false values that are alien to any normal person”, and criticised Eurovision for the participation of performers such as Austrian drag artist Conchita Wurst.