“The actions of extremists are becoming more and more widespread. We are running into attempts of using so-called color technologies, from organizing illegal street protests to open propaganda of hatred in social networks,” Putin said in a speech with Internal Ministry employees.
Putin has repeatedly warned against the damaging consequences of the color revolutions, saying such attempts should be prevented in Russia and that the country's population should be protected from extremists.
The "color revolutions" are understood as an overthrow of a ruling regime triggered by mass street protests and financially backed by foreign powers. A series of regime changes sparked by popular protests have taken place in several post-Soviet republics, including the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004 and the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan in 2005.
In April 2014, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the United States and the European Union attempted to foment another color revolution in Ukraine, referring to the February 2014 coup which resulted in the ousting of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
