MOSCOW - There is no ground for a color revolution in Russia, State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said as quoted by the parliament's PR and media department on Monday.
"I am confident that the ‘orange scenario’ has no prospect in Russia," he said.
People realize that political transformations can and must be done within the legal framework and lawful procedures, he said. "People who want changes in politics do not want these changes to endanger the existence of the state," he said.
The speaker thus commented on the statement of ex-Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on the impossibility of ‘an orange revolution’ in Russia made at the Davos World Economic Forum.
"In this case I cannot be a detached observer; Alexei Kudrin is a friend and a colleague. Regardless of our personal relations, the interest in his opinion is understandable," Naryshkin said.
Public moods in Russia are totally different from those in the orange revolution countries; the moods are also different as compared with the situation in the Soviet Union in 1991, Naryshkin said. "Our society has become freer and, at the same time, more responsible since then," he said.
Naryshkin does not doubt that the majority of citizens have a strongly negative attitude toward any attempts of weakening the country.
"Russian history shows that society consolidates and deters any external impact. That happened in the Great Patriotic War [of 1941-1945], the Patriotic War of 1812 and the banishment of invaders from Moscow 400 years ago. Striving to protect the country nests in the national identity," he said.
Kudrin, who switched to the opposition after his dismissal, said several days ago that he was ready to mediate the opposition’s negotiations with the authorities and expressed the opinion that the Ukrainian ‘orange revolution’ scenario would not repeat in Russia.
He opposes such scenarios and called for using the existent election institutions on the condition of their improvement while speaking on the Davos Forum sidelines.
