Yeliseev V.S., Lebedeva M.L. “Color revolutions” and law: posing a question

Abstract: Based on the work of Gene Sharp “From Dictatorship to Democracy” and his methodology on the color revolutions, the authors present the issue of correlation between political rights and liberties, and political foundations of a country, and attempt to find the “red line” between them, since the topic is of constitutional positions. Gene Sharp offers the criteria of “revolutionary organization” and the “revolutionary” as a harmful phenomenon for the society, while the color revolutions the author views as a threat to the national interest of a country as a whole. The definition of color revolution is given based on the combination of criteria, including those presented in Sharp’s book. The authors propose to underline the main and additional criteria of revolutionary activity, including the criteria of financing the public organization from abroad and using it as a basis for considering an organization as revolutionary and therefore, pose a question of outlawing its activity. The authors compare the revolutionary activity with extremism.

Keywords: