#3 - JRL 7300
80 Percent Welcome Putin's Reinstatement of Red Flag for Armed Forces

MOSCOW, August 22 (Itar-Tass) -- Fewer Russians want to have the Soviet flag back, however they still comprise a quarter of those polled by the ROMIR-Monitoring center on the eve of the State Flag Day marked Friday. The number of respondents willing to have the red flag with the hammer and sickle back decreased four percent compared to November 2001 and comprised 24 percent. At the same time 80 percent of 1,500 respondents welcomed the decision of President Vladimir Putin to reinstate the red flag as the official symbol of the national armed forces. The number of those preferring the current Russian white-blue-red tricolor grew eight percent and comprised 62 percent compared to 54 in 2001. Most of the respondents (36 percent) are unaware when the tricolor became the national flag. Only nine percent know it appeared yet in tsarist Russia in the end of the 17th century. Another 14 percent know the tricolor became the national flag in 1896 right before last Russian Tsar Nicholas the Second was enthroned. Sixteen percent recalled the tricolor replaced the Soviet flag after the 1991 foiled hard-line Communist coup attempt and the collapse of the Soviet Union.