In 2005, the 60th anniversary of Victory Day, news agency RIA Novosti and a youth civic organization launched a campaign that called on volunteers to distribute ribbons in the streets ahead of Victory Day [REF].
Yulia Latynina and other journalists have speculated the Russian government introduced the ribbon as a public relations response to the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine in which demonstrators had adopted orange ribbons as their symbol [REF].