Russian TV channels, including NTV and REN TV, published a video of the Reichstag in Berlin, over which a red flag was allegedly erected, symbolizing the victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany (REN TV later removed the video from its website). Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels turned out to be the source of the photos and videos: it was there that the post originally appeared with the inscription “German social networks write that the banner of Victory has again appeared over the Reichstag in Berlin.” Then the fake was published by Tsargrad TV with the headline: “The Russians took Berlin without firing a shot: the banner of victory again flies over the Reichstag.” Further, the “news” was picked up by numerous pro-government publications: Moskovsky Komsomolets, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Izvestia, Zvezda, Arguments and Facts, etc. It was alleged that “unknown activists” made their way to the roof of the Reichstag and fixed the Soviet banner there.
However, as Polygon.media found out , the photos and videos are fake. “This has never happened in the German Bundestag,” the press service said in a response. The Bundestag (German parliament) is housed in the Reichstag building.
The "Banner of Victory" in Russia is called the assault flag of the 150th Order of Kutuzov II degree of the Idritsa Rifle Division, hoisted on May 1, 1945 on the roof of the Reichstag building by the Red Army. The Federal Law of the Russian Federation "On the Banner of Victory" establishes that "The Banner of Victory is the official symbol of the victory of the Soviet people and its Armed Forces over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the state relic of Russia."
