Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Their debut was in the 1994 contest after Russia became a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Russia came second at four contests; in 2000 with the song "Solo" performed by Alsou, in 2006 with Dima Bilan's song "Never Let You Go", in 2012 with the song "Party for Everybody" performed by Buranovskiye Babushki, and in 2015 with Polina Gagarina's song "A Million Voices". They also achieved four third-place finishes; in 2003 with t.A.T.u's song "Ne Ver', Ne Boysia", Serebro's in 2007 with their entry "Song #1", and in 2016 as well as 2019 with Sergey Lazarev's song "You Are the Only One" and "Scream" respectively.

Russia has failed to qualify for the Final on two occasions. In 1996, Russia's entry was Andrey Kosinsky with the song "Me is me", but he scored an insufficient number of points in a special qualifying round, while in 2018 Yulia Samoylova, who represented the country with the song "I Won't Break", failed to qualify from the televised second semi-final.

In 1998, because Russia did not participate in the contest (due to lower average scores in participating in previous competitions), 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 2008, 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 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.

• In 2017, a Russian named Kristian Kostov represented Bulgaria, whereas another Russian named Sergey Stepanov (the same man who represented Moldova in 2010) also represented Moldova in this edition, both of them placing 2nd, respectively 3rd.

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 temporarily 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. From 2021 onwards alternation in broadcast was put back again as prior to 2017, due to cancellation of 2020 contest.

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  Serebro in Helsinki (2007)
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  Dima Bilan in Belgrade (2008)
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  Anastasia Prikhodko in Moscow (2009)
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  Peter Nalitch and Friends in Oslo (2010)
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  Alex Vorobyov in Düsseldorf (2011)
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  Dina Garipova in Malmö (2013)
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  Tolmachevy Sisters in Copenhagen (2014)
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  Polina Gagarina in Vienna (2015)
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  Sergey Lazarev in Stockholm (2016)
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  Julia Samoylova in Lisbon (2018)
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  Sergey Lazarev in Tel Aviv (2019)

• Russia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Russia in the Eurovision Dance Contest – Dance version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Russia in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• Russia in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.
• Russia in the Türkvizyon Song Contest – A contest for countries and regions which are of Turkic-speaking or Turkic ethnicity.