MOSCOW, June 27 (RIA Novosti) - About 600 out of 1500 Moscow school graduates, awarded for their outstanding success in studies, received the award bearing the Serbian flag instead of Russian, a Moscow education official said on Wednesday.
The manufacturer of the commemorative tokens, known as “gold medals” in Russia, got the order of the colors on the national flag the wrong way round, reversing the white-blue-red of the Russian flag into the red-blue-white of the Serbian flag.
The deputy head of Moscow’s education department, Isaak Kalina, said the reason for the embarrassing situation was “common negligence”
"[Our supplier] received two boxes [of medals], one of them was checked, the other was not… We detected the flaw on June 23 and contacted the supplier immediately,” Kalina said.
He said the manufacturer assured that new medals will be ready in two weeks.
