Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Russia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times since their debut in. Russia won the contest with Dima Bilan performing the song "Believe". One of the most successful countries in the contest in the 21st century with a total of ten top five placements, Russia finished second with Alsou in, Dima Bilan in, Buranovskiye Babushki in and Polina Gagarina in ; third with t.A.T.u. in, Serebro in, Sergey Lazarev in and, and fifth with Dina Garipova in. In, they failed to qualify for the final for the first time in their history.
Contest history
Their debut was in the contest after Russia became a member of the European Broadcasting Union. Russia came second at four contests; in with the song "Solo" performed by Alsou, in with Dima Bilan's song "Never Let You Go", in with the song "Party for Everybody" performed by Buranovskiye Babushki, and in with Polina Gagarina's song "A Million Voices". They also achieved four third-place finishes; in with t.A.T.u's song "Ne Ver', Ne Boysia", Serebro's in with their entry "Song #1", and in as well as with Sergey Lazarev's song "You Are the Only One" and "Scream" respectively.In 1996, Russia's entry was Andrey Kosinsky with the song "Me is me", but on the eve of competition, he scored an insufficient number of points in a special qualifying round and therefore missed the final.
In 1998, because Russia did not participate in the contest, Russia refused to broadcast the competition and the European Broadcasting Union in return forbade the country to participate the following year. According to unconfirmed information, Russia was required to submit Tatyana Ovsiyenko with the song "My Sun".
Russia won their first Eurovision Song Contest in, when Dima Bilan, participating for the second time in the contest, won with the song "Believe", bringing the contest to Russia for 2009.
Russia was the most successful country in Eurovision in 2000-2009, with one win, two second places, and two third places. However, in 2010 they finished 11th, and in 2011 they were 16th, which was the worst place for Russia since 1995. Interest in the competition fell, but in 2012 Buranovskiye Babushki finished in second place, increasing Russia's interest in the show. Russia holds the record for the most top five finishes in the 21st century, with ten, with Sergey Lazarev holding the record of the highest score of any Russian contestant, who finished third in 2016 with 491 points.
In 2018, for the very first time, a Russian contestant failed to reach the final. Yulia Samoylova, who represented the country with the song "I Won't Break", failed to qualify to the Grand Final from the second semi-final.
In February 2019, Sergey Lazarev was once again confirmed as the Russian representative for Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv. Which makes Sergey the second return artist in Russian Eurovision participation history after Dima Bilan, who participated in 2006 and 2008 respectively. This time he represented his country with the song Scream, managed to bring Russia back to grand final for the first time since 2016 and achieved the 10th top 5 result by finishing third once again.
Broadcast
The contest has been broadcast irregularly on two different public state channels in Russia, both EBU members: for the 1994 and 1996 it was broadcast on Russia-1 of VGTRK, while in 1995, 1997 and from 1999 to 2007 the contest was broadcast on Channel One. Since 2008, there is an alternation on broadcast and selection, with Russia-1 on even years, and Channel One on odd ones. This however changed after not broadcasting 2017 contest, when Channel One started to do the broadcast and selection on even years, while Russia-1 on odd ones.Contestants
Selection process
Related involvement
Heads of delegation
Commentators and spokespersons
Hostings
| Year | Location | Venue | Presenters | |
| Moscow | Olympic Indoor Arena | Natalia Vodianova and Andrey Malahov Alsou and Ivan Urgant |
Awards
Marcel Bezençon Awards
| Year | Category | Song | Performer | Final | Points | Host city | |
| Press Award | "You Are the Only One" | Sergey Lazarev | 3 | 491 |  Stockholm |
Barbara Dex Award
| Year | Performer | Host city | |
| t.A.T.u. |  Riga |