DISINFO: The West sponsored a series of colour revolutions in the Middle East
SUMMARY
The end of the Cold War came about after the self-destruction of one of the two players: the Soviet East abandoned its ideology, the capitalist West did not. As a result, unipolarism and liberal globalisation took shape and enabled liberal ideology to expand on a global scale.
Unipolarism meant that Arab populations were left alone to face the liberal Atlanticist West. The unipolar process struck the Middle East and culminated in a series of Western-sponsored “coloured revolutions” aimed at bringing democracy, human rights and liberalism to “backward societies”.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about colour revolutions orchestrated by the West and specifically about the Arab Spring.
“Colour revolutions” is a term used by pro-Kremlin outlets to depict popular protests that have occurred in recent years in various countries and that have arisen spontaneously for various reasons related to controversial domestic policies or serious social issues, such as the protests in Catalonia, Ukraine with Euromaidan, Georgia, Belarus, Hong Kong as well as the protests in Russia. Pro-Kremlin outlets do not recognise the popular and spontaneous nature of these demonstrations of national public dissent but portray them as revolutions planned, organised and financed by Western intelligence services or other Western actors.
When the Arab Spring revolts broke out throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East beginning in 2010-2011, Russian media increasingly spread conspiracy theories portraying the uprisings as nefarious “colour revolutions” hatched in the United States. Senior Russian security and military officials claimed that the Arab Spring, which got much of its initial traction through social media such as Facebook and Twitter, was a new subversive methodology designed by Western intelligence services to destabilise societies and bring about regime change, first in the Arab world and subsequently in Russia itself.
However, there is no evidence that the Arab Spring uprisings were orchestrated and funded by Western governments nor by any other Western actor. Serious scholars and analysts point to a combination of political, economic and social factors that triggered the spread of protests and upheavals in many Arab countries.
As noted by disinformation analysts, the threat of “color revolutions” is a recurring theme in Russian government security discourse and pro-Kremlin media, and is closely related to the idea of an external threat, which has always played an important role in the strategic communication of Soviet and Russian leadership. Today, the Russian government uses fears of an external threat as a justification to crack down on any public expression of anti-regime opposition and dissent.
Read similar cases claiming that the Arab Spring was organised by the West, that the West has launched a second wave of colour revolutions, and that the scenario for the next colour revolution is already underway.