The State Duma is considering a proposal to make Aug. 6 a "Day of Patriotism" in honor of President Vladimir Putin's foodstuffs embargo, which was enacted in 2014 in response to Western sanctions. The author of the initiative is Rahman Yansukov, president of the Avanti Association of Entrepreneurs for the Development of Patriotic Business.
In his address to the Duma, Yansukov claimed that the U.S. and a number of European countries tried to put pressure on Russia to "weaken its role in the world" and "bring about the collapse of its economic stability and political integrity."
Yansukov said that Putin's presidential decree of Aug. 6, 2014, entitled "On the application of certain special economic measures in order to ensure the security of the Russian Federation," was a "signal" to "patriotic businessmen" that they would be building the future economy of Russia.
Yansukov said the embargo and the subsequent program of import substitution "rallied the citizens and entrepreneurs around the idea of building the economic independence of Russia, which was a real manifestation of patriotism in the difficult conditions of permanent political and economic pressure."
