With artists from more than 20 countries and ambitions for a billion-plus viewers, Russia on Saturday revived its Intervision song contest, which Moscow hopes will compete with a "decadent" Eurovision.

First held in the Soviet era and relaunched in February on President Vladimir Putin's orders, the concert-as-soft-power tool kicked off at 8:30 pm (1730 GMT) at an arena near the Russian capital, with the opening ceremony hitching future-looking technology to nostalgia for the USSR past.

With Russia banished from Eurovision, the annual song contest extravaganza, over its offensive in Ukraine, the Kremlin has pushed Intervision as a means to lay the anti-Western narratives on thick while striving for new cultural and political alliances.

In a video address to the participants, including tr

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