Vietnamese singer Duc Phuc has won Russia’s Intervision song contest, held in Moscow on Saturday.
Vietnam was among the countries participating in the Soviet-era contest, revived by President Vladimir Putin three years after Russia was banned from Eurovision because of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Putin said he was confident the event would become “one of the most recognisable and beloved events in the world”.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said it considered Intervision 2025 “an instrument of hostile propaganda and a means of whitewashing the aggressive policy of the Russian Federation”.
The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg went along to watch.
You can read more about Russia’s answer to Eurovision here.
