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Russia Marks National Flag Day With 100kg Flag and Pomp

Sergei Malgavko / TASS

With a 100-kilogram flag and the country’s biggest piece of white-blue-and-red cloth, Russia is celebrating its tricolor with pomp on national Flag Day this Wednesday.

Flag Day has been celebrated every year on Aug. 22 since it was introduced in 1994 by then-President Boris Yeltsin. 

To mark the occasion, cities from Moscow to Vladivostok planned a range of events for Russian flag lovers far and wide.

Moscow alone is set to host 250 events, including a festival of colors featuring only white, blue and red dye. The country’s biggest flag, measuring 1,000 square meters, has been put on display at the Victory Museum on Poklonnaya Gora.

A 28-by-16-meter flag weighing 100 kilograms, a gift from the Orthodox Church in Mexico on Flag Day in 2015, was unfurled in the annexed Crimean city of Simferopol.

Flag owners are actively encouraged to display their tricolors outside their homes and offices, while youth groups in several regions are holding a so-called “Russia in Every Window” campaign.

Those without a flag handy have assembled the tricolor using everything from utensils to ties and even children.

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