Weaponization of “Colour Revolutions”

Abstract

The term “colour revolutions” was coined to describe nonviolent mass protests against political elites that broke out in the post-Soviet region, a decade after the breakdown of the USSR. The most active, well-organized and successful “colour revolutions” took place in Serbia (2000), Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004) and Kyrgyzstan (2005). The crisis in Ukraine that began in November 2013, with mass protests against the government’s decision not to sign an association agreement with the EU, again raised the issue of “colour revolutions” in Russia. The Russian political and military leadership’s views which can be determined from updated strategic documents, military concepts, speeches and media narratives provide an insight into a profound authoritarian reaction to the phenomena, which by its very nature is a form of democratic development. The article aims to reveal how “colour revolutions” are being weaponized in Russia through their interpretation as warfare.