GIA JORJOLIANI

The main point of the color revolutions is fight for power, and not social reforms. It is incorrect to compare them with social revolutions, namely, the Great French Revolution, and those in Russia, Iran, etc.

SAMVEL MARTIROSYAN

On November 27, in Armenia there was held a referendum on amending the Constitution proposed by the National Assembly. According to the Central Election Committee, there were over 1.5 million (65.3%) of registered voters who came to the polling stations. The overwhelming majority, that is 93.3% of the electors, said “yes” the Constitution reform, and only 5.4% voted it down. The opposition’s smashing failure in boycotting the referendum led to an even more intense stepping-up of president Robert Kocharian’s opponents.

SHAMSUDIN MAMAEV

Baku has already requested Kyiv the extradition of the former Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Rasul Guliev, whose plane couldn’t land in Baku on October 17, 2005 and had to get into the aerodrome in the Ukrainian city of Simferopol. The Ukrainian police took him into custody since he had been on the Interpol wanted list. The Azerbaijani opposition leader Rasul Guliev is being accused of misappropriating of about $100 million of state property.

ALEXEI MAKARKIN

The lower house of the Kazakh parliament (Majlis) has set the date for the next presidential election, which is to take place on December 4. Elections in the post-Soviet republics have tended to coincide with the phenomenon of "color revolutions". For Kazakhstan, however, such a prospect seems unlikely. It is not so much the question of a 9-percent economic growth registered in the first six months of this year (economic growth in Ukraine under Viktor Yanukovich government was as high), or the charisma of Nursultan Nazarbayev, who, as opposed to, say, Eduard Shevardnadze, has not exhausted his political potential. The main point is that there are no grounds for a revolution in Kazakhstan.

ANATOLY BELIAYEV

Although in their recent Borjomi declaration the Ukrainian and Georgian presidents proclaimed a goal of ushering in "a new era of democracy, security, stability, and peace across Europe, from the Atlantic to the Caspian Sea," its geographic framework is more modest than that. In reality, the initiators of a new regional alliance intend to further expand "color" revolutions, and weaken to the utmost Russia's foreign policy positions on the CIS territory.

TATYANA STANOVAYA

Geopolitical strategies in the former Soviet republics are undergoing change. The United States no longer intends to spare any effort to preserve post-Soviet regimes that are relatively loyal to the West, banking instead on weakening or overthrowing them.

TATYANA STANOVAYA

The treatment of leaders ousted in the recent "color revolutions" in some CIS states is directly related to the way in which power was seized. Kyrgyzstan has meted out the most brutal treatment, followed by Ukraine and Georgia.

ALEXEI ARBATOV

The West clearly demands that Belarus should be freed of what it calls the last dictatorship in Europe. I am afraid that Russia-West confrontation in this area could end in a head-on clash.

ALEXEI ARBATOV

Belarus could be next in line for the revolution bug that swept Georgia and Ukraine, which would pave the way for a serious Russian-western conflict, according to Alexei Arbatov, head of the International Security Center at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

KONSTANTIN SIMONOV

The alliance of states trying to cut off Russia from deciding the most important economic and political issues on the post-Soviet area is being created actively. So, the present is more important than the future.

STANISLAV BELKOVSKY

A well-known Russian political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky, the head of the National Strategy Institute, presented his idea of the "schedule of revolutions" on the post-Soviet space. In his opinion, there is the least risk of revolutions in Turkmenistan and Belarus.

ANATOLY BELIAYEV

A series of color revolutions in the former Soviet states, as well as the fundamental change in the foreign policy of Moldova and the latest events in Uzbekistan, raise the question of the reasons for and, most importantly, the possible consequences of these developments.

KIRILL KOKTYSH

Belarus is not the first candidate among the CIS countries for a new “color revolution” following Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. I would say all CIS countries that haven’t been touched upon with this process yet stand even chance of the “color revolution”. In this context we can treat the address of FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev about external financing the Belarusian political opposition of Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s regime.

ALEXEI MAKARKIN

Four presidents attended an April session of the GUUAM regional organization in Chisinau. Uzbek President Islam Karimov ignored it because his country was preparing to withdraw from the organization (the news was made public officially on May 5, changing GUUAM into GUAM). Viktor Yushchenko (Ukraine) and Mikhail Saakashvili (Georgia), who did attend the summit, were brought to power by color revolutions.

The reasons of the revolution in Bishkek can be revealed through attitude towards the American military base in Kyrgyzstan.

Many people believe that resignation of Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev was initiated by Washington. But now the events in Kyrgyzstan point out that Russia or China could stand behind the “tulip revolution”.

White House will help young democracies

President of the United States George W. Bush is going to create the government department to support new democratic regimes.