Russia participated in and hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow after winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "Believe" performed by Dima Bilan. The Russian entry was selected through a national final, organised by the Russian broadcaster Channel One Russia (C1R). Anastasia Prikhodko represented Russia with the song "Mamo", which scored 91 points in the final and finished in 11th place.

On 10 December 2008, Channel One held a press conference regarding the organisation of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, during which the general director of the channel, Konstantin Ernst, confirmed that the Russian entry for the upcoming contest would be selected through a national final. Initially, the format of the selection consisted of three stages: the first stage would select the song, the second stage would select three potential singers and the third stage would select the best combination of one of the three artists performing the selected song. On 4 February 2009, Channel One amended the format of the selection to a competition where artists would compete with the songs they submitted. Yuriy Aksyuta, music director at Channel One, revealed on 21 February 2009 that over 1000 entries had already been submitted to the competition and that an expert jury would be responsible for selecting 15-20 entries to compete in the national final. On 26 February 2009, Channel One announced the 15 entries that were selected to compete in the competition.

Several of the selected entries were in violation of the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest, in particular, the rule according to which participating songs, in full or in part, should not be publicly performed, released as audio or video, published on the internet or in any other way before 1 October 2008. Venger Collective, Tim Rocks, Polina Griffith and Kvatro all entered songs that were in violation of this rule. Polina Griffith changed her entry from "Love Is Independent" to "Cry For You" and Kvatro changed their entry from "Ya tebya lyublyu" to "Lyubovyu otvechay". The other performers continued in the competition with ineligible songs.

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