Russia celebrates on Sunday its National Flag Day, one of its main state holidays.
On August 22, 1991, a tri-color flag consisting of the white, blue and red bands was officially hoisted over the Russian Government House in Moscow to replace the Soviet-era red flag with the hammer and the sickle.
On August 20, 1994, Russia's first president Boris Yeltsin issued a decree to declare National Flag Day an official holiday.
A tri-color was an official flag in Russia until the Bolsheviks annulled it in 1918 and introduced their proletarian red flag.
MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti)
