It’s the beloved festival of camp kitsch that shot Abba and Conchita Wurst to stardom. Now, Vladimir Putin wants his own macho version of Eurovision.

But under the isolated Russian president’s stern gaze, it is out with bearded drag crooners and anything to do with decadent Western culture.

The despot has ordered his apparatchiks to reboot the Soviet Union’s defunct Intervision song contest as an anti-woke rival to the sequin-laden and LGBT-friendly original.

Eurovision was hugely popular in Russia, which won the competition once, in 2008.

But in 2021, Manizha became the last Russian act to perform in the contest, which took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, because the following year, the county was thrown out of the contest after it invaded Ukraine.

Ukraine then went on to win the contest for the third time.