Suddenly, it's everywhere. An orange-and-black ribbon that was intended to be Russia's answer to the Remembrance Day poppy, but which has become a symbol of solidarity among ethnic Russians – as well as support for President Vladimir Putin.
The striped St. George ribbon could be seen on the lapels of many parliamentarians in the Russian Duma as they voted last week for the annexation of Crimea, and pinned to the jackets of pro-Moscow protesters as they clashed with pro-Kiev crowds in eastern and southern Ukraine. It hangs from the rear view mirrors of Moscow taxis and – enlarged into a flag – flies over checkpoints established by Russian-backed militiamen in Crimea.
As its spread suggests, the banner is also connected to the idea of a Great Russia. The St. George ribbon is one of the few symbols shared by both Imperial Russia and the USSR.
The roots of the banner – two orange stripes running through three black ones – date back to the 18th century, when Catherine The Great made the Order of St. George the highest military honour awarded in imperial Russia. After a period of disuse, it was brought back by Soviet leader Josef Stalin, who bestowed it on those who displayed "glorious feats of bravery, courage and fearlessness in the battle for the Soviet Motherland" during the Second World War.
The ribbon largely disappeared again following the collapse of the USSR, but it was resurrected in 2005 by Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news service, which that year launched a campaign to encourage patriotism and remembrance of the sacrifices the country made in the Second World War, which is known here as the Great Patriotic War.
According to a report in The Moscow Times, volunteers distributed three million St. George ribbons in the city ahead of last year's Victory Day celebration on May 9. They were also sent to Russian embassies in 73 countries.
"The victory in the Great Patriotic War is still the most valid unifying symbol for Soviet citizens, who one day found themselves living in different countries," said Pavel Andreev, executive director of the Valdai Club Foundation, a state-backed foreign policy think-tank in Moscow.
While the blue-white-and-red Russian flag is also much on display these days in both Russia and Ukraine, wearing the orange-and-black ribbon in Ukraine has a slightly different message than waving the Russian tricolour, Mr. Andreev said. "They don't necessarily want to join Russia, but they feel solidarity with it."
Wearing the ribbon in Ukraine has also become a way of showing opposition to the new government in Kiev, which many Russian-speakers see as having been aided to power by Ukrainian nationalist groups linked to those who sided with Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
Reflecting the historic divide on display in Ukraine, the controversial Right Sector movement, which took part in the uprising that last month ousted the Moscow-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych, flies a black-and-red banner drawn from that used by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought against Soviet rule during and after the Second World War. The UIA briefly co-operated with the Nazis in hopes of advancing its goal of a Ukraine independent from Russian rule.
Those wearing the St. George ribbon call those flying the black-and-red banner "fascists," while Ukrainian nationalists regularly accuse those wearing the orange-and-black of being provocateurs paid by Moscow.
Inside Russia, the new political significance of the St. George ribbon is controversial with some opposition activists. Some believe it was brought back in 2005 to counter and confuse the significance of the colour orange following Ukraine's peaceful Orange Revolution in 2004, which some in the Kremlin worried might inspire a copycat uprising in Moscow.
If it was brought back in 2005 as a symbol of remembrance, it has now become associated with the latest confrontation in Ukraine, as well as a longing for when Russia was the centre of an empire.
"Over time, it just became a popular symbol of patriotism," said Oleg Kozlovsky, a Russian opposition activist. "For people with an imperial way of thinking, it doesn't just refer to modern Russia, but to Soviet times."
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Mark MacKinnon