From Medvedev, with love

Wikimedia Russia recently ran a campaign on the need to change Russian copyright law to include a "freedom of panorama" clause allowing anyone to take public photos of monuments and buildings (whose designs might otherwise be considered under copyright).  This received broad support, including a word from President Dmitri Medvedev (Дмитрий Медведев).

This morning, Russian news agency RIA Novosti celebrated its 70th anniversary by launching an "Eternal Values" project in partnership with Wikimdia Russia, through which it will publish the most valued images from its digital archive on Wikimdia Commons.  (ceremony video, Commons announcement)

At the launch of the project, the first 100 images were uploaded to Commons. Roughly 800 of the most popular or requested images will be uploaded by the end of the year.

President Medvedev attended the ceremony and personally uploaded image #100 - an image of recruits heading to the front lines in 1941.  Talk about nation-changing wikilove!

Requests for specific images from the RIAN archive can be left on the project page on Russian Wikipedia.  Support for the project, in any language, can be left on its Commons talk page.