Russia marked National Flag Day on August 22, 2026, celebrating 35 years since the historical white, blue and red tricolor was officially restored in Moscow following the collapse of the August 1991 Soviet coup attempt.
The restoration on August 22, 1991, returned a national symbol that had represented the country for more than three centuries, replacing Soviet emblems after the defeat of the hardline State Committee on the State of Emergency, known as the GKChP.
During the three-day standoff in August 1991, defenders of the White House building in Moscow and sympathetic citizens walked through the capital carrying the tricolor flag. Under Soviet law, displaying pre-revolutionary state symbols could result in severe administrative or criminal penalties.
Viktor Yaroshenko, who served as Minister of External Economic Relations for the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1990 to 1991, said public sentiment had matured during the putsch to support restoring Russia's historic flag.
Yaroshenko, a close associate of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, said lawmakers in the RSFSR Supreme Soviet witnessed the courage of citizens at the barricades and voted on August 22, 1991, to reinstate the national tricolor.
At noon that day, before a victory rally outside the government building, Yeltsin ordered the tricolor to be raised over the Supreme Soviet building and declared the three-color banner to be the official state flag of Russia.
The event marked the first time since the Russian Civil War of 1917 to 1922 that the tricolor was raised as the official state emblem. However, the ceremony was nearly delayed because organizers could not locate a flag of suitable size for the building.
With only forty minutes remaining before the rally, RSFSR Prime Minister Ivan Silaev recalled that Yaroshenko had a large Russian tricolor hanging on his office wall, which he had previously brought back from Sweden. Silaev asked Yaroshenko, who had originally proposed returning the symbol, to lend his personal flag for the ceremony over the White House.
President Putin on national symbols
Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently supported the return of the state flag. Putin previously told reporters that among all historical symbols of the Russian state, the white, blue and red tricolor is closest to his heart.
Putin noted that the flags of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and modern Russia hold equal historical value. He emphasized the long history of the tricolor, noting that Tsar Peter the Great first sailed under the banner into the White Sea in the late 17th century.
Putin said Russia grew into a major world power under the tricolor over subsequent centuries. He added that Russian soldiers protected the nation under the flag for generations, just as troops do today in active combat zones.
Dmitry Medvedev on geopolitical symbols
Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012 and currently serves as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, has also commented on the flag's future and international role.
In 2025, when answering a question from a school student about how the political map of the world would look in ten years, Medvedev joked that one should imagine the entire globe painted in the three colors of the Russian flag.
Medvedev also addressed the flag in a serious context following an incident where the United States military seized a vessel from Russia's shadow fleet. The ship had tried to avoid capture in open waters by changing its jurisdiction and raising the Russian flag.
Medvedev stated that granting temporary flag authorization to a vessel pursued by Russia's main geopolitical adversary was a decision with predictable consequences. However, he added that the actions of the American military amounted to the criminal seizure of a civilian vessel.
Political opposition from left and right
The reinstatement of the tricolor was not universally welcomed across the political spectrum. Left-wing political organizations, most notably the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, have frequently criticized the banner.
Communist critics often point out that the tricolor was used during World War II by Soviet General Andrey Vlasov, who defected to Nazi Germany after his capture, despite having previously been a favored military commander under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
Alexander Trubitsyn, a regular contributor to the central Communist Party website, claimed that democratic leaders raised the Vlasov tricolor over Russia after taking power and falsely claimed Vlasov did not use it.
Trubitsyn stated that the tricolor was only officially adopted as a state flag in 1896 prior to the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II. He claimed Nicholas II sullied the flag in blood during anti-Jewish pogroms in Odessa and Kishinev.
While Emperor Nicholas II officially designated the tricolor as the state flag in 1896, claims that it was not used as a national symbol prior to that year are historically inaccurate, a position shared by Putin in his public statements.
Opposition to the tricolor also existed on the right wing of Russian politics, although far less commonly than on the left. The late Vladimir Zhirinovsky, founder of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, voiced strong objections to the flag despite his nationalist views.
Zhirinovsky described the tricolor as the flag of Alexander Kerensky, head of the 1917 provisional government, and General Vlasov. He questioned who would respect a banner he described as belonging to nobody, noting that while the tricolor became the state symbol under Russia's first president Boris Yeltsin, Yeltsin died while the flag remained.
Alternative proposals and church perspectives
Criticism of the tricolor also extended to cultural figures. Nobel Prize winning poet Joseph Brodsky expressed a preference for the Russian naval banner over the white, blue and red flag.
Brodsky stated that he believed the country would have benefited if it had adopted the flag of the Russian navy, known as the St. Andrew's flag, which features a diagonal blue cross on a white background.
Reflecting on historical disputes over national emblems, the Russian Orthodox Church has advocated for national unity and respect for the state banner.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia stated that when a nation respects its flag, it demonstrates self-respect. He argued that the state flag should never be insulted or used casually as decorative paint.
Patriarch Kirill added that flags serve to mobilize citizens and foster national identity, noting that military units have historically gathered under banners to defend their country even before formal state flags existed.
