DISINFO: Colour revolution methodology used in Belarus
SUMMARY
… Observers believe that there is real evidence, [that] mechanisms and ideologies adopted during the colour revolutions in Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine, [are] lurking Belarus today.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Belarus and colour revolutions. The protests in Belarus erupted to contest the results of the presidential election in Belarus on the 9th of August, which are considered fraudulent by a large part of Belarusian society. The European Union has also stated that the elections were neither free nor fair. There is no evidence that the protests in Belarus are funded and organised externally. Pro-Kremlin media frequently use disinformation narratives about popular protests around the world allegedly incited and funded by the US and other Western states, including colour revolutions in post-Soviet states. This narrative claims that protests, disorders and civil uprisings are never manifestations of popular discontent but are “colour revolutions” directed and funded by the West. See similar cases claiming that the protests in Belarus are a colour revolution conducted according to a Maidan scenario and that the West wants to prepare Maidan in Belarus. Several issues of the Disinformation Review has been devoted to the situation in Belarus: examples here and here.