Russia announced its participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, in Kiev, Ukraine. The Russian broadcaster Channel One Russia organised their entrant internally. Russia was planned to compete in the first half of the second semifinal on 11 May 2017, until the announcement of their withdrawal on 13 April 2017.

Prior to the 2017 contest, Russia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty times since its first entry in 1994. Russia had won the contest on one occasion in 2008 with the song "Believe" performed by Dima Bilan. Russia's least successful result has been 17th place, which they have achieved in the 1995 with the song "Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana" performed by Philipp Kirkorov. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Russia has, to this point, managed to qualify to the final on every occasion. In 2015, Russia was the runner-up at the Eurovision Song Contest, placing second with the song "A Million Voices" performed by Polina Gagarina.

On 12 March 2017, Channel One announced that they had internally selected Julia Samoylova, with her song "Flame is Burning" to represent them at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. She was described as "an independent singer, an enchanting girl and a successful competition participant".

On 13 March 2017, it was revealed that Ukrainian officials had begun an investigation into Samoylova, alleging that in 2015, she had illegally traveled directly to Crimea, a region that was annexed by Russia in 2014, to give a performance. Ukrainian legislation requires visitors to enter the region through points under the control of the Ukrainian government, or risk being banned from entering Ukraine for several years.

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Wikipedia