Back in the USSR: Putin revives Soviet-era 'Eurovision' with new allies

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a revival of the Soviet answer to the Eurovision Song Contest in an effort to counter what he says is the decadence of modern Western culture.

Putin signed a decree on Monday for the Intervision Song Contest to be held in Moscow this year, and told senior Kremlin and government officials to prepare for the event. China, Cuba, Brazil and other "friendly" countries are expected to take part.

Russia was banned from Eurovision in 2022 after Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, though he has been trying to revive Intervision for more than a decade.

In contrast to Eurovision, which often celebrates LGBT+ themes and performers, Intervision will strike a more sober tone, according to documents seen by Reuters, stressing respect for "traditional universal, spiritual and family values".

"Artists may not perform songs that call for violence, humiliate the honour and dignity of society, and it is required that political themes in the lyrics are completely excluded," said one of the Russian planning documents.

Putin has increasingly sought to cast Russia as the defender of traditional family values and says the West has lost its moral moorings in the pursuit of what he sees as excessive individualism and a lack of respect for religious traditions.

In Russia, stringent rules now ban anything deemed to promote homosexuality, while the international LGBTQ+ movement is branded an extremist organisation.

Russia took part in Eurovision 23 times from 1994 but as ties with the West steadily soured it began to consider reviving the Soviet-era Intervision, especially after Conchita Wurst, an Austrian drag queen popularly known as "the bearded lady," won the contest in 2014, the year Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

INTERVISION

Intervision originally launched under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in the 1960s as an Eastern Bloc alternative to the capitalist Eurovision Song Contest, bringing together Moscow's allies in eastern Europe and other communist nations like Cuba.

Russian officials say a number of countries including China, Brazil, Cuba and former Soviet republics such as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Belarus have expressed interest in taking part in the revived Intervision music contest.

According to the documents seen by Reuters, performers will have up to four minutes to sing their song live in whatever language they like. The winner will go on tour and get prize money.

"The contest will be open for participation of all countries that wish to do so," the document said, adding that participants must "respect cultural, ethical and religious traditions of other peoples of the world".