Crosses on the coat of arms have been legalized in Russia

State Duma deputies adopted on December 18, in the second and third readings, a law obliging the depiction of crosses on the coat of arms of the Russian Federation.

The law “On the State Emblem” clarified the description of the coat of arms, stating that the small crowns, the large crown and the orb are crowned by “straight equal four-pointed crosses with flared ends,” writes TASS.

Such amendments were submitted to the Duma after an image of the coat of arms without crosses was noticed on the Kremlin website in May. It showed a digital coat of arms of Russia with fewer details - with rhombuses instead of crosses. Such a coat of arms was developed in 2017 by the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation.

The Kremlin explained that this is due to scaling issues: “If the coat of arms is reduced, then at some point the crosses actually turn into a rhombus.”

The crosses were returned to the coat of arms on the Kremlin website after criticism from Nikita Mikhalkov, who called the version with diamonds “chicken tobacco.”