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COLOURED REVOLUTIONS - A MISCALCULATION ON MOSCOW'S PART?

WASHINGTON, April 6, (RIA Novosti's Arkady Orlov) - Russia has taken into account the experience of recent "revolutions" in such countries of the near abroad as Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, and is now starting to work out new principles of relations with CIS countries,." This was the view expressed on Tuesday in Washington by Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee.

"It will be a pragmatic and transparent approach, understandable to and predictable by all participants," the deputy said as he spoke at a presentation of the analytical magazine Russia Profile, published in Russia in the English language.

In Kosachyov's view, in Russia itself developments according to the scenario of the Ukrainian "Orange" revolution are impossible. "It is simply because the Russian leadership will never make such mistakes as were made by the former leadership of Ukraine," the deputy said, meaning numerous violations in the course of election and vote counting.

At the same time he said that he considers the "coloured" revolutions in a number of CIS countries, including Ukraine, the result of Russia's mistakes. Moscow, for example, paid more attention to working with the ruling elites of those countries, persuading them to maintain friendly relations, and forgetting contacts with the population, who could also exert pressure on this elite from below to keep alive mutually beneficial relations with Russia, in which this population is really interested.

In this connection he described the developments in Ukraine as "unnatural" in a way, because in reality "a lot links objectively Ukraine and Russia".

After confirming that American and some western non-governmental organizations are indeed very active in CIS countries, Kosachyov stressed that he does not consider their efforts to be the main reason for the recent "revolutions" close to Russian borders.

"It was Russia that made the mistakes," the deputy believes. He added that the "revolutions" are not the product of "any provocative campaign mounted by Russia's enemies".

Speaking of "mistakes" in CIS development, the committee chairman remarked that for a number of members of the post-Soviet space their orientation on the western countries is due to a desire to underscore their "European identity" and implement such "national projects as NATO and EU entry," and also get financial aid even on a limited scale.