The Myths and Reality of Color Revolutions

There is great danger that external forces are increasingly interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states with the aim of changing these states’ course to suit their own interests. Color revolutions are more dangerous than any other non-traditional challenges, threats and risks to collective CSTO security.

There is great danger that external forces are increasingly interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states with the aim of changing these states’ course to suit their own interests. According to experts from the member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, color revolutions are more dangerous than any other non-traditional challenges, threats and risks to collective CSTO security.

Political analysts agree that color revolutions are a type of coup d’état staged using political, information, communication, moral and psychological methods. Powerful pressure is put on demoralized authorities who have lost the ability to control the situation and the reliance on the law-enforcement agencies capable of taking effective countermeasures.

These kinds of illegal actions are usually aimed at the full or partial disintegration of the country, at changing its domestic or foreign policy, replacing its government with a more loyal lineup, installing external control, criminalizing the nation and subordinating it to the diktat of other nations or transnational criminal organizations.

Color revolutions usually originate or develop in societies where there is natural or induced desire for democratic rights and for the instability of the government. In this case the opposition has sufficient room for regrouping, accumulating political, information and administrative resources and increasing pressure on the authorities.

Working toward color revolutions involves the selecting and training of leaders and special groups that will organize protest actions in order to put powerful information and psychological pressure on the authorities.

The main “driving force” of sociopolitical quakes are the most vulnerable groups of population that usually lack elementary knowledge and experience, primarily young people who are infected with “democratic” aspirations.

The use of external resources is another vital element in color revolutions. Their organizers receive the external information support necessary for legalizing their activities, and also use resources provided by concerned influential groups to train activists, organize protest actions, and so on.

Moreover, color revolutions only succeed in countries with the conditions and infrastructure (such as numerous foreign-financed NGOs) for creating the necessary social basis, the driving “revolutionary” force.

The guile of the organizers and proponents of “revolutionary” change is impressive. They are ready to use any means necessary to achieve their mercenary goals, including openly illegal and amoral measures. It can only be called a very cynical move when a high-ranking official, previously an advocate of democratic values, openly rubs shoulders with a radical nationalist and anti-Semite. Color revolutions have shown how foreign sources have provided financial and other assistance to the opposition groups that organized mass protest rallies.

New schemes for overthrowing legitimate authorities include the use of military groups of extremist and terrorist organizations and suicide jihadists.

Furthermore, I’d like to stress how critically important for us it is to understand and take into account the forms of technology color revolution organizers use to shape the protest potential, to escalate conflicts to the point of violence, and to recruit large groups of people for protests. We would welcome recommendations on ways to neutralize external forces’ influence on legitimate authorities, who work to discredit them and to force them to take political decisions to suit their own needs.

As for the CSTO, the organization does not interfere in the internal political affairs of other countries, including its member states. But it is concerned about external threats. The CSTO leadership is monitoring aspects of color revolutions including external influence on and interference in the organization’s member countries affairs, and the development of conditions in which legitimate authorities can be overthrown in a military coup or via protest action.

This article was originally published in Russian in Nezavisimoye Voennoe Obozrenie

Views expressed are of individual Members and Contributors, rather than the Club's, unless explicitly stated otherwise.