Current Controversy

As Russia’s assertive military stance grew in recent decades, so did the international controversy over its actions. Conflicts in post-Soviet states, such as in Central Asia or the Caucasus, have traditionally been seen as falling within Russia’s sphere of influence, and the deployment of Russian soldiers there has elicited little comment. In recent years, however, the Russian military has played an important role in Middle Eastern and African conflicts, most especially in Syria, and has made moves to retake control, directly or indirectly, over parts of Ukraine. Its full-scale February 2022 invasion of Ukraine followed on the heels of eight years of low-level conflict between Kyiv and two Russian-backed separatist republics in Donetsk and Lughansk. For those promoting Russia’s assertive and even aggressive military stance, these moves, including the invasion, have represented a return to Russia’s proper place as one of the world’s ‘Great Powers’. For many others, however, they have shown the Russian state to be uncontrollably jingoistic and driven to aggressive military endeavors with little concern for the costs involved.

As a symbol of pride in the Russian military and its victories, the Order of St. George – and the black and orange ribbon backing it – have become caught up in the controversy over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its other recent military actions. Those supporting the war in Ukraine proudly display the Ribbon of St. George, and the colors of the ribbon are frequently employed by the Russian state in its official and unofficial messaging about the war. The colors have also been used by those promoting the equally controversial ‘Z’ symbol, meant in Russia to show support for the invasion itself.

For the states, armies, and people elsewhere opposed to the invasion of Ukraine, however, this had made the Ribbon of St. George a distasteful symbol of Russian aggression. Many citizens of post-Soviet states, once sympathetic to the ribbon and the idea of pan-Soviet pride in victory it represented, have since rejected the symbol and no longer wear it on May 9. Some states have even gone further: Moldova, for example, has gone as far as to ban the ribbon as an ‘extremist’ sign and one no longer welcome in Moldovan society.