Russian policy towards the “rose revolution” in Georgia

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of Russia’s policy towards the Rose revolution, which took place in November 2003 in Georgia. It became the first color revolution in the post-Soviet space, during which a complex of technologies for changing political regimes, tested in Serbia three years earlier, again demonstrated its eff ectiveness. Despite the fact that many aspects of this color revolution have received decent coverage in the scientifi c literature to date, the position and policy of the Russian state in relation to this coup d’etat still remain virtually unexplored. The article provides an overview of Russian-Georgian relations in the post-Soviet period, analyzes the reaction of the Russian authorities to the parliamentary elections held on November 2, 2003 in Georgia, evaluates and systematizes the statements and concrete steps of Russian politicians and diplomats during the implementation of the Rose revolution. The authors used documents from the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, many of which are being introduced into scientifi c circulation for the fi rst time, electronic resources of Russian state authorities, materials from leading Russian and foreign media. It is concluded that in order to preserve political stability in Georgia, Moscow took a neutral position and even contributed to the settlement of the internal crisis in the country, but as a result of the color revolution anti-Russian forces came to power in Tbilisi, whose policy subsequently led to a signifi cant deterioration of Russian-Georgian relations and to an aggravation of the situation in the South Caucasus region as a whole.