In 2008, the selection of Russia's Eurovision entrant returned to RTR, with the broadcaster organising a national selection with twenty-five candidates. Later, this number was increased to 27 after RTR added two participants: Sergey Lazarev and 2006 Belarusian Eurovision entrant Polina Smolova. Other participants included the 2006 Russian Eurovision entrant Dima Bilan, who submitted the song "". The song was disqualified when it was discovered that the song was released in 2006 by Argentinian singer Luciano Pereira, violating the Eurovision rule that barred songs from being commercially released before 1 October 2007. The song was replaced with "Believe", which won the event with 54 points, including the maximum score (27) from both the jury and televoting. Russia won that year's Eurovision Song Contest with 272 points.
