Russian anti-war flag | |
Use |
|
---|---|
Proportion | 2:3 / 1:2 |
Adopted | 28 February 2022 |
Design | A horizontal triband of white (top and bottom) and azure. |
The white-blue-white flag ( Russian: бело-сине-белый флаг, romanized: belo-sine-belyy flag) is a symbol of opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has been used by Russian anti-war protesters. [1] [2] [3] It has also been used as a symbol of opposition to the current government of Vladimir Putin by several personal Internet accounts, and the Freedom of Russia Legion. [4] [5] [6]
Several people created the idea of the white-blue-white flag shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022. Kai Katonina, a Berlin-based user experience designer, and a Russia-based art manager with the pseudonym "Fish Sounds" (Звуки Рыб, Zvuki Ryb), [2] [3] also known as "AssezJeune", [8] are each credited with having created the flag. It was first used on social media on 28 February 2022, [2] [9] and has been flown by Russian expatriates at various anti-war protests. [10]
One of the stated reasons for replacing the red stripe of the flag of Russia by a white one is to remove the association with "blood and violence". [7] [6] [11] [12] [13] [14] AssezJeune, one of the flag's creators, stated: "The red on the modern Russian flag is associated not just with blood, but with its military power and authoritarian strength. So, this is not just the removal of blood, but, most importantly, the removal of the cult of militarism and violence. WBR is a historical authoritarian flag introduced by Tsarist Russia. It's also associated with militarism, with Russian imperial cores." [15] [16]
The flag is not used by all anti-war activists and opposition parties, and several opposition activists (such as Maria Motuznaya) have criticized AssezJeune's reasons for removing the red stripe. [2]
Use of the flag began shortly after the start of the invasion, and the flag began to garner wide appeal among protesters who oppose the war. The white-blue-white flag has an official website, where it is described as the "Flag of the Wonderful Russia of the Future" and "A symbol of freedom and peace"; the website includes background information in multiple languages. The flag has not been associated with representing a single organization exclusively, and several anti-war organisations have demonstrated support for it as a broader symbol of anti-war sentiment and unity. [17] The similarity and analogy with the white-red-white flag that has been widely used during the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests is often listed as one of its advantages, as is the similarity to the flag of Veliky Novgorod, in which the government of the Novgorod Republic had a reputation for developing democratic governance. [2] [5] [16] [15] [4]
The white-blue-white flag has been used at anti-war protests in Tbilisi, Georgia, [18] Berlin, Germany, [19] [20] Sofia, Bulgaria, [21] Bern, Switzerland, [22] Limassol, Cyprus, [7] [20] Prague, Czech Republic, [4] [23] The Hague, Netherlands, [24] and Riga, Latvia. [25] In addition, some media have reported that the flag has also been used by protesters in Yekaterinburg, Russia, although this claim has not been supported by any evidence. [4] [20] [26]
On 31 March 2022, the head of the Duma commission on foreign interference, Vasily Piskarev, appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office to ban the white-blue-white Russian flag as extremist, since "this symbolism is used in protests against the military operation in Ukraine not only in Russia, but also in other countries". [27]
Members of the Freedom of Russia Legion ( Russian: Легион «Свобода России», romanized: Legion "Svoboda Rossii"), composed of Russians who defected from the Russian Armed Forces to Ukraine, have been seen wearing patches of the flag on their military uniforms. [28] [29]
The white-blue-white flag (as well as other symbols of Russia) was banned during the Equality Parade in Warsaw, held alongside KyivPride . [30] KyivPride published a statement about possible provocations, labeling any intentions to "display Russian flags of any color" a provocation and an unacceptable step meant to advance the Russian agenda. [31]
On 21 August 2022, the manifesto of a hitherto unknown partisan group within Russia, National Republican Army (NRA) ( Russian: Национальная республиканская армия (НРА)), endorsed the adoption of the white-blue-white flag. The manifesto was issued following the car bomb assassination of Darya Dugina and read aloud by exiled Russian politician Ilya Ponomarev on his video outlet "February Morning" ( Russian: Утро Февраля), and published via its affiliated Telegram-based news service "Rospartisan" ( Russian: Роспартизан). [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] The white-blue-white flag motif is employed by February Morning on the air and in its social media profiles. [33] [37] [38]
On 22 May 2023, the Freedom of Russia Legion posted videos showing the flag being lifted with balloons flying in the center of Moscow following the Belgorod Oblast incursion, which they claimed credit for. [39]
On 16 September 2022, rapper Oxxxymiron released an anti-war video for the song " Oyda", which refers to the white-blue-white flag: "Our flag has white snow and a blue river (and that's it!)" [40]
Im Exil formiert sich eine Anti-Putin-Opposition. Als Symbol tragen die Regimegegner eine weiß-blau-weiße Flagge. […] Auch in Russland tauchen die neuen Farben auf. So demonstrierten in Jekaterinburg schon Anfang März Putin-Gegner im Zeichen der Flagge gegen den Krieg.[An anti-Putin opposition forms in exile. The opponents of the regime bear a white-blue-white flag as a symbol. […] The new colors are also appearing in Russia. In Yekaterinburg, for example, opponents of Putin demonstrated against the war under the sign of the flag at the beginning of March.]
Schon wenige Tage nach der Invasion schrieben viele Russen in sozialen Medien, dass sich die weiß-blau-rote Trikolore diskreditiert habe und das neue Russland, das irgendwann nach Putin entstehen wird, eine neue Flagge brauche – ohne Blut darauf. Der rote Streifen solle daher durch einen zweiten weißen Streifen ersetzt werden: die Farbe des russischen Schnees und der Reue.[Just days after the invasion, many Russians wrote on social media that the white-blue-red tricolor had become discredited and that the new Russia that will emerge sometime after Putin needed a new flag – without blood on it. The red stripe is therefore to be replaced by a second white stripe: the color of Russian snow and of regret.]
[S]ome anti-war Russians on 6 March rallied around a brand-new flag they have chosen to represent them: a single blue band on a white background. […] "We decided we can no longer use the Russian tricolor, because Putin has turned it into a fascist symbol," said Alex Zaporozhtsev, an activist with the group For Freedom in Russia, which has organized protests against the Putin regime for over seven years. "We decided to take away the red stripe – it's the color of blood – and make it white." He said the new flag was conceived in a group chat for Russian opposition activists living around the world and made its debut shortly after the invasion.
About 50 Russians converged on Limassol's promenade prior to joining with other protesters to chant slogans such as "Stop the war, stop Putin" and waving blue and white flags they said where[sic] the Russian national flag without the red stripe that represented "blood and violence."
One protester at Bebelplatz named Nikitia (sic) Batalov held up a blue and white flag. "This is a Russian flag without a red stripe, without a red bloody stripe of Russia, without Putin," she told DW, explaining that half her family live in Ukraine and half in Russia.
Several members of the crowd carried a blue and white striped flag, a symbolic version of the Russian flag, which normally has a red stripe on the bottom. The protesters said Putin had destroyed their flag, so they changed it by rubbing out the red. "We decided we can just take our Russian flag and just wash it from all this blood and just have this blue-white flag," Valaria said.
Even if Russians can't reference the ongoing war, many have changed their profile pictures to black or white to indicate mourning or the need for peace. Instead of using the Ukrainian flag online (some people might not feel safe overtly indicating they are pro-Ukraine), you sometimes see people posting the Russian tricolour, with an extra white band replacing the red – the logic being that it is the Russian flag but 'without the blood'.
Die weiß-blau-weiße Flagge ähnelt auch der Flagge des freien Belarus — Weiß-Rot-Weiß.[The white-blue-white flag is similar to the flag of the free Belarus – white-red-white.]
Die Vorteile einer neuen weiß-blau-weißen Flagge seien zum einen die Ähnlichkeit mit der ehemaligen Flagge von Weliki Nowgorod, einer Stadt, die als Wiege der russischen Demokratie gelte. Außerdem würde sie an die belarussische weiß-rot-weiße Protestfalle erinnern.[Among the advantages of a new white-blue-white flag were its resemblance of the former flag of Veliky Novgorod, a city considered to be the cradle of Russian democracy. Also, it would remind of the Belarusian white-red-white protest flag.]
Several Russian-speaking people in their early 20's waved the white-blue-white flag, currently a symbol of the anti-war protests in Russia and were often met with questions about what it means. "See, there's no red, no blood", explained one of the flag bearers to a curious person in the crowd.
Thousands of Russians marched through Prague on Saturday, waving the white-blue-white flag that has become a symbol of protests against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
While the Belarusian opposition has long been inspired by Ukraine's resistance to Russia and attempts to impose authoritarian rule, the arrival of Russians willing to fight against their own compatriots is relatively new. The uniforms of the Freedom for Russia unit have the white-blue-white patch, in the colors of a new Russian flag favored by some opponents of Mr. Putin.
Russian anti-war flag | |
Use |
|
---|---|
Proportion | 2:3 / 1:2 |
Adopted | 28 February 2022 |
Design | A horizontal triband of white (top and bottom) and azure. |
The white-blue-white flag ( Russian: бело-сине-белый флаг, romanized: belo-sine-belyy flag) is a symbol of opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has been used by Russian anti-war protesters. [1] [2] [3] It has also been used as a symbol of opposition to the current government of Vladimir Putin by several personal Internet accounts, and the Freedom of Russia Legion. [4] [5] [6]
Several people created the idea of the white-blue-white flag shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022. Kai Katonina, a Berlin-based user experience designer, and a Russia-based art manager with the pseudonym "Fish Sounds" (Звуки Рыб, Zvuki Ryb), [2] [3] also known as "AssezJeune", [8] are each credited with having created the flag. It was first used on social media on 28 February 2022, [2] [9] and has been flown by Russian expatriates at various anti-war protests. [10]
One of the stated reasons for replacing the red stripe of the flag of Russia by a white one is to remove the association with "blood and violence". [7] [6] [11] [12] [13] [14] AssezJeune, one of the flag's creators, stated: "The red on the modern Russian flag is associated not just with blood, but with its military power and authoritarian strength. So, this is not just the removal of blood, but, most importantly, the removal of the cult of militarism and violence. WBR is a historical authoritarian flag introduced by Tsarist Russia. It's also associated with militarism, with Russian imperial cores." [15] [16]
The flag is not used by all anti-war activists and opposition parties, and several opposition activists (such as Maria Motuznaya) have criticized AssezJeune's reasons for removing the red stripe. [2]
Use of the flag began shortly after the start of the invasion, and the flag began to garner wide appeal among protesters who oppose the war. The white-blue-white flag has an official website, where it is described as the "Flag of the Wonderful Russia of the Future" and "A symbol of freedom and peace"; the website includes background information in multiple languages. The flag has not been associated with representing a single organization exclusively, and several anti-war organisations have demonstrated support for it as a broader symbol of anti-war sentiment and unity. [17] The similarity and analogy with the white-red-white flag that has been widely used during the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests is often listed as one of its advantages, as is the similarity to the flag of Veliky Novgorod, in which the government of the Novgorod Republic had a reputation for developing democratic governance. [2] [5] [16] [15] [4]
The white-blue-white flag has been used at anti-war protests in Tbilisi, Georgia, [18] Berlin, Germany, [19] [20] Sofia, Bulgaria, [21] Bern, Switzerland, [22] Limassol, Cyprus, [7] [20] Prague, Czech Republic, [4] [23] The Hague, Netherlands, [24] and Riga, Latvia. [25] In addition, some media have reported that the flag has also been used by protesters in Yekaterinburg, Russia, although this claim has not been supported by any evidence. [4] [20] [26]
On 31 March 2022, the head of the Duma commission on foreign interference, Vasily Piskarev, appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office to ban the white-blue-white Russian flag as extremist, since "this symbolism is used in protests against the military operation in Ukraine not only in Russia, but also in other countries". [27]
Members of the Freedom of Russia Legion ( Russian: Легион «Свобода России», romanized: Legion "Svoboda Rossii"), composed of Russians who defected from the Russian Armed Forces to Ukraine, have been seen wearing patches of the flag on their military uniforms. [28] [29]
The white-blue-white flag (as well as other symbols of Russia) was banned during the Equality Parade in Warsaw, held alongside KyivPride . [30] KyivPride published a statement about possible provocations, labeling any intentions to "display Russian flags of any color" a provocation and an unacceptable step meant to advance the Russian agenda. [31]
On 21 August 2022, the manifesto of a hitherto unknown partisan group within Russia, National Republican Army (NRA) ( Russian: Национальная республиканская армия (НРА)), endorsed the adoption of the white-blue-white flag. The manifesto was issued following the car bomb assassination of Darya Dugina and read aloud by exiled Russian politician Ilya Ponomarev on his video outlet "February Morning" ( Russian: Утро Февраля), and published via its affiliated Telegram-based news service "Rospartisan" ( Russian: Роспартизан). [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] The white-blue-white flag motif is employed by February Morning on the air and in its social media profiles. [33] [37] [38]
On 22 May 2023, the Freedom of Russia Legion posted videos showing the flag being lifted with balloons flying in the center of Moscow following the Belgorod Oblast incursion, which they claimed credit for. [39]
On 16 September 2022, rapper Oxxxymiron released an anti-war video for the song " Oyda", which refers to the white-blue-white flag: "Our flag has white snow and a blue river (and that's it!)" [40]
Im Exil formiert sich eine Anti-Putin-Opposition. Als Symbol tragen die Regimegegner eine weiß-blau-weiße Flagge. […] Auch in Russland tauchen die neuen Farben auf. So demonstrierten in Jekaterinburg schon Anfang März Putin-Gegner im Zeichen der Flagge gegen den Krieg.[An anti-Putin opposition forms in exile. The opponents of the regime bear a white-blue-white flag as a symbol. […] The new colors are also appearing in Russia. In Yekaterinburg, for example, opponents of Putin demonstrated against the war under the sign of the flag at the beginning of March.]
Schon wenige Tage nach der Invasion schrieben viele Russen in sozialen Medien, dass sich die weiß-blau-rote Trikolore diskreditiert habe und das neue Russland, das irgendwann nach Putin entstehen wird, eine neue Flagge brauche – ohne Blut darauf. Der rote Streifen solle daher durch einen zweiten weißen Streifen ersetzt werden: die Farbe des russischen Schnees und der Reue.[Just days after the invasion, many Russians wrote on social media that the white-blue-red tricolor had become discredited and that the new Russia that will emerge sometime after Putin needed a new flag – without blood on it. The red stripe is therefore to be replaced by a second white stripe: the color of Russian snow and of regret.]
[S]ome anti-war Russians on 6 March rallied around a brand-new flag they have chosen to represent them: a single blue band on a white background. […] "We decided we can no longer use the Russian tricolor, because Putin has turned it into a fascist symbol," said Alex Zaporozhtsev, an activist with the group For Freedom in Russia, which has organized protests against the Putin regime for over seven years. "We decided to take away the red stripe – it's the color of blood – and make it white." He said the new flag was conceived in a group chat for Russian opposition activists living around the world and made its debut shortly after the invasion.
About 50 Russians converged on Limassol's promenade prior to joining with other protesters to chant slogans such as "Stop the war, stop Putin" and waving blue and white flags they said where[sic] the Russian national flag without the red stripe that represented "blood and violence."
One protester at Bebelplatz named Nikitia (sic) Batalov held up a blue and white flag. "This is a Russian flag without a red stripe, without a red bloody stripe of Russia, without Putin," she told DW, explaining that half her family live in Ukraine and half in Russia.
Several members of the crowd carried a blue and white striped flag, a symbolic version of the Russian flag, which normally has a red stripe on the bottom. The protesters said Putin had destroyed their flag, so they changed it by rubbing out the red. "We decided we can just take our Russian flag and just wash it from all this blood and just have this blue-white flag," Valaria said.
Even if Russians can't reference the ongoing war, many have changed their profile pictures to black or white to indicate mourning or the need for peace. Instead of using the Ukrainian flag online (some people might not feel safe overtly indicating they are pro-Ukraine), you sometimes see people posting the Russian tricolour, with an extra white band replacing the red – the logic being that it is the Russian flag but 'without the blood'.
Die weiß-blau-weiße Flagge ähnelt auch der Flagge des freien Belarus — Weiß-Rot-Weiß.[The white-blue-white flag is similar to the flag of the free Belarus – white-red-white.]
Die Vorteile einer neuen weiß-blau-weißen Flagge seien zum einen die Ähnlichkeit mit der ehemaligen Flagge von Weliki Nowgorod, einer Stadt, die als Wiege der russischen Demokratie gelte. Außerdem würde sie an die belarussische weiß-rot-weiße Protestfalle erinnern.[Among the advantages of a new white-blue-white flag were its resemblance of the former flag of Veliky Novgorod, a city considered to be the cradle of Russian democracy. Also, it would remind of the Belarusian white-red-white protest flag.]
Several Russian-speaking people in their early 20's waved the white-blue-white flag, currently a symbol of the anti-war protests in Russia and were often met with questions about what it means. "See, there's no red, no blood", explained one of the flag bearers to a curious person in the crowd.
Thousands of Russians marched through Prague on Saturday, waving the white-blue-white flag that has become a symbol of protests against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
While the Belarusian opposition has long been inspired by Ukraine's resistance to Russia and attempts to impose authoritarian rule, the arrival of Russians willing to fight against their own compatriots is relatively new. The uniforms of the Freedom for Russia unit have the white-blue-white patch, in the colors of a new Russian flag favored by some opponents of Mr. Putin.