National Flag Day will be celebrated Tuesday with marches and public events throughout Russia

Thursday, June 30, 2022

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National Flag Day, a holiday introduced by Russia's first president, Boris Yeltsin, in 1994 will be celebrated Tuesday with marches and public events throughout Russia. The national tricolor, with horizontal bands of white, blue, and red, first replaced the Soviet-era red banner at the seat of the Russian government August 21, 1991, following a failed a coup against the then-Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev. Moscow will be the scene of numerous events, including a march in central Moscow by the right-wing liberal Union of Right Forces party, and a bicycle race by Nashi ("Ours"), a Russian pro-Kremlin political youth movement. A spokesman for the Moscow branch of the ruling pro-Kremlin United Russia party said it did not plan on holding any holiday-related events. Activists in the Far East region of Sakhalin will hold a motor rally, called Our Flag - Our Russia, to bring a 50 by 4 meter flag from the Kunashir Island in the Pacific to the regional center of Vladivostok on the mainland. Though unofficially, the colors of the Russian flag symbolize freedom and independence (white), faith (blue) and statehood (red).