Moscow and Beijing are seeking to bolster cultural ties with new initiatives
Russia and China are working to strengthen their cultural cooperation through the film and music industries, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. He revealed various projects discussed during the BRICS Summit last week, including joint film ventures and an international music festival.
In an interview with Rossiya-1 correspondent Pavel Zarubin published on his Telegram channel Sunday, Putin praised Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s initiative to enhance collaboration between filmmakers from both countries. He underscored the cultural and historical bonds between Russia and China, stating that the two nations share “pages of heroic history, beautiful history” and many interesting stories that should be introduced to a wider audience.
“There is also an idea to create a high-level festival like Intervision,” the Russian president continued, referring to a popular song contest that once served as an alternative to the Western Eurovision.
”When we proposed this, our Chinese friends supported it and embraced the idea. Let’s see what comes of it,” he added.
Intervision attracted artists not only from then-socialist countries but also welcomed contestants from the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Spain, Canada, and Portugal. The festival ran from 1965 to 1980, first in Czechoslovakia and then in Poland.
There was an attempt to revive the contest after the fall of the Soviet Union, with a single event in Russia’s Sochi in 2008 attended by 11 former members. In 2023, Moscow again proposed reviving Intervision, now with the participation of Central Asian nations, Shanghai Cooperation Organization members and BRICS countries, and others willing to participate.
Russia switched to participating in Eurovision in 1994 but was excluded from the ostensibly “apolitical” contest after the escalation of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022. Several Russian celebrities, including 2015 Eurovision contestant Polina Gagarina, were sanctioned by the EU for refusing to denounce the Russian government.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned Western attempts to ‘cancel’ Russian culture, with Putin stating that the “unprecedented politicization of the field of culture” has turned it “into a weapon of geopolitical intrigues.”
