Russia organizes Intervision Song Contest after it is eliminated by Eurovision

It doesn’t seem to… pop out of her blockade as she decided to host Intervision. In fact Vladimir Putin signed today (03/02/2025) a decree to organize this year the international song competition “Intervision” – as it is called – after Russia was excluded from Eurovision due to its attack on Ukraine. CORVERSE A competition called this was organised in the Soviet era between the Allied countries of the Soviet Union. After its collapse, Russia repeatedly attempted to revive the event. According to the Russian President’s decree, this alternative music competition, called Intervideníé in Russian, is expected to take place in Moscow with the aim of “to develop international cultural and humanitarian cooperation”. Russian government vice president Dmitry Chernicenko was appointed head of the organization committee. Last year, President Putin’s envoy for International Cultural Cooperation Michael Svidkoy stated that the competition will take place in September 2025 and that “nearly 20 countries” are ready to participate, of which members of the BRICS, an organization involving countries with emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil, and members of the Commonwealth of Independent Countries, to which countries of the former USSR belong adjacent to Moscow. CORVERSE The Kremlin decree does not specify the date of the tender. The Intervision Song Contest was organized in the 1960s and 1970s, mainly with Eastern bloc countries, of which Poland and Czechoslovakia. However other countries have participated. After the collapse of the USSR, Russian television broadcast several shows with the same name on a smaller scale. In 2014, Russia had announced its intention to revive the competition. Russia participated in Eurovision from 1994 to 2021, sending some of its largest music stars to the competition. In 2008 he won with Dima Bilan and his song “Believe”. Moscow then hosted the competition at the Olympic Stadium in 2009. Russia was excluded from Eurovision in 2022, after its attack on Ukraine. Russian officials have heavily and repeatedly criticised Eurovision, mainly for participating Austrian drag queen singer Conchita Vurst, winner of the competition in 2014.