MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) - Color revolutions are likely to expand geographically, Russian Defense Minister Gen. of the Army Sergei Shoigu said.
"It is highly likely that color revolutions will be expanding geographically," Shoigu said in a lecture at the opening of the 2nd all-Russia youth forum 'International military-political and military-economic cooperation: modern tendencies' at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) on Tuesday.
He called color revolutions "an evil" and explained their use as a geopolitical tool with their efficiency in attaining political ends.
"Carrying them out allows for crushing regional powers while achieving political and economic goals with minimum resources involved and restricted use of one's own weapons and armed forces," he said.
The spread of color revolutions can be stopped only through the global community's close cooperation, he said.
Earlier on Tuesday Shoigu said that the deployment of the Russian grouping in Syria made it possible to cut off the chain of "color revolutions" spreading across the Middle East and Africa. "The use of our grouping in the Syrian Arab Republic allowed for attaining a geopolitical objective: to discontinue the chain of 'color revolutions' being churned out in the Middle East and in Africa," Shoigu said at a lecture.
This new international phenomenon leads to negative military, political and economic consequences in various countries, he said.
"The wave of 'color revolutions' prompted serious changes in world politics, in the configuration of forces worldwide and in regions. Yugoslavia, Georgia, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, Syria - this is an incomplete list of the states where the 'color-revolution' scenario has been tested," the minister said.
The West sees such revolutions as a way to spread democracy, which consists of the non-violent overthrow of "undemocratic" regimes, he said. However, a military analysis of the events that took place in the Middle East and North Africa suggests the opposite: the military-force factor is part and parcel of 'color revolutions'," the defense minister said.
"It is present at all stages of escalation of a 'revolution' and the resulting domestic conflict," he said.
"First the military potential of a coalition of countries organizing an overthrow of an undesirable government is used to openly put pressure on it. The purpose of this pressure is to prevent the state from using law enforcement agencies to restore law and order. Then, once the opposition starts military action against government troops, the foreign states carry out military and economic assistance to the rebels," Shoigu said.