Putin tells Russia it must fight to avoid ‘coloured revolutions’

Vladimir Putin told Russian security chiefs yesterday (Thursday) to do everything necessary to prevent “coloured revolutions” such as those seen in Ukraine from reaching Russia as it was announced that more than 1,000 people have died there since the September truce.

Russian officials also accused the United States of “destabilising” the situation in Ukraine by considering supplying Kiev with weapons.

“In the modern world, extremism is being used as a geopolitical instrument and for remaking spheres of influence. We see what tragic consequences the wave of so-called colour revolutions led to,” Mr Putin said at a meeting of Russia’s security council.

“For us this is a lesson and a warning. We should do everything necessary so that nothing similar ever happens in Russia.”

The “coloured revolutions” were a series of popular uprisings that toppled governments in former Soviet republics including Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan in the 2000s.

A similar uprising overthrew Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president of Ukraine, in February.

The Kremlin described the uprising as a Western-backed coup and responded by annexing the Ukrainian region of Crimea and backing a secessionist uprising in the east of Ukraine. The resulting war has killed more than 4,300 people and plunged relations between Russia and the West to their lowest since the end of the Cold War.

Nearly 1,000 people have been killed in the fighting in Ukraine since a ceasefire came into effect in September, equivalent to 13 people a day, the United Nations said.

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement: “Civilians, including women, children, minorities and a range of vulnerable individuals and groups continue to suffer the consequences of the political stalemate.”

The latest UN report on the conflict came as monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said they were shot at twice by a uniformed man in the back of a lorry as they patrolled near the line separating government and separatist-held territory. No one was hurt in the incident near Mariinka, a government-controlled town about 10 miles west of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.

A senior OSCE official called the prospect for peace “bleak,” but rejected suggestions that the ceasefire had collapsed. “It is the only agreement in place which has any restraining power on the use of force,” Heidi Tagliavini, the OSCE envoy to a trilateral contact group including Ukraine and Russia, said.

Russia has accused Ukraine and the West of fuelling the conflict.

Alexander Lukashevich, the deputy foreign minister, said any delivery of US military hardware to Ukraine would be a “destabilising factor“. Mr Lukashevich was responding to reports that a US official had suggested supplying arms. Joe Biden, the US vice-president, arrived in Kiev yesterday to meet Ukrainian officials and express support for the government.

The Daily Telegraph

20–11–2014