40 Years of Victory Medal with interesting ribbon

[Wat05]

I have found this medal selling online, located in France. Nothing over the top, it’s a generic jubilee medal. However, what caught my eye was the unique warp-weft ribbon that is used more in the west of Europe in the first half of the century. A theory I thought of is that it might be awarded to a Frenchman who participated in WWII, who was involved in the aiding and helping of the USSR, thus being awarded the medal, and later on, replaced the ribbon with a locally manufactured one. Could this be possible? Has anyone else ever seen a ribbon replacement like this? 
 

 

[Ferdinand]

Foreign recipients received a version of the medal without the text 'To a war participant' on the back. So yours is a regular version for Soviet military veterans.

 

The ribbon looks relatively new and was probably not made during the Soviet era. New ribbons are manufactured and sold all around the world. A quick eBay search for replacement ribbons yields many results. So minor production variations common.

[Wat05]

These ones are sometimes confusing. I would have expected that non-Soviets were awarded the special medals without the top text. However it seems that some foreigners received the common ‘War Participant’ medal, like the British in the Arctic Convoy. Someone said that the medals without the top text were awarded to delegates who celebrated the annniversary celebrations, and visited on special occasions. Some not even participants of the war. Perhaps this is just an ordinary medal, but I never seen such a type of ribbon.

[Ferdinand]

Some 5000 pieces of the foreigner version were produced. That seems like a high number for just high-level foreign delegates. There are several options of course, but Occam's razor suggests that this is a basic war participant version on an eBay ribbon.

[ChrisKelly]