The authors of the amendments – members of the Duma factions of the pro-presidential United Russia party and the Just Russia party – suggest allowing citizens to use the state flag during official, public and sport events, fly on houses, industrial enterprises and institutions.

They believe this will facilitate “patriotic feelings among c

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itizens and allow Russians to express their pride for the country, love to and respect for it freely and openly”.

Currently, the Russian flag may be used only during official events. “Sometimes law enforcement agencies even institute administrative proceedings against citizens for using the state flag or its images in a manner that is not consistent with the rules of the law,” the authors said.

State Duma Committee for Constitutional Legislation and State Development Chairman Vladimir Pligin said, “There is a culture of using flag in our country.”

“Prohibitive measures that existed before made sense only when this symbol was making its way into the life of people. Now, I am sure, the use of the flag can be regulated by the norms of ethics and culture,” he said.

First deputy head of the United Russia faction Vladimir Pekhtin said, “The Russian flag is a symbol of power of our great state, a symbol of unity and consolidation of the Russian people.”

Fist deputy head of the United Russian faction Tatyana Yakovleva said, “We should have given up this prohibitive practice a long time ago and allowed the broad use of the national flag.”

“Of late, there have been more and more situations for showing one’s patriotic feelings and pride for the achievements of our country”.

A member of the State Duma Committee for Economic Policy and Entrepreneurship, Oleg Valenchuk, said, “The flag is a symbol of patriotism, a part of our live for the country, and the situation where law enforcement could initiate administrative proceedings against citizens for an unofficial use of the flag is nothing else but a legal puzzle.”

“The right of Russians to use the flag of their own country as their heart and mind tells them is as natural as the right of every person to breath in the air of his country and live on its territory,” he said.

The flag of Russia is a tricolour of three equal horizontal fields, white on the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom. The flag was first used as an ensign for merchant and war ships and only became official in 1896. Rumored to be based on the Dutch tricoluor, the flag continued to be used by the Russian Provisional Government even after the tsar was toppled in the February revolution and was not replaced until the October revolution which established a Boleshvik government.

When the Bolsheviks took power in 1917, the tricolour design was discarded, and a definitive new flag of the Russian Republic (one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union) was introduced in 1954, and this remained the republic's flag until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. All of the Soviet Republics' flags were created by introducing a small, but noticeable change, to the flag of the Soviet Union. In this case, the change was an introduction of the left-hand blue band.

The original flag of 1883 (rather than the black-yellow-white colour combination) was re-adopted by Russia on August 22, 1991. The readoption date is celebrated yearly as the national flag day.

The modern era flag underwent a slight change in 1993 and has been official since 2000.

MOSCOW, September 3 (Itar-Tass)