"Ukraine has practically slid into civil war"

Source: Tanjug

MOSCOW -- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at the opening of an international conference on global security that Ukraine has practically slid into civil war.

(Beta/AP)

"After the president was forcibly removed from power with active involvement of external forces, the country has practically slid into civil war," the Russian minister said in Moscow on Friday, and warned that a focal point of tension has been artificially created in Europe.
The 3rd Moscow International Security Conference is attended Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gašić. Shoigu spoke about the impact of "color revolutions" on global security and pointed out that those were an important factor of destabilization in many regions of the world.

Among the negative examples, he mentioned "the war against Serbia."

"The phenomenon of colored revolutions becomes an important factor of destabilization in many regions of the world. Under the pretext of spreading democracy, someone else's values are imposed on people. Socio-economic and political problems of some countries are used to replace nationally oriented governments with regimes that are controlled from abroad," said the high ranking Russian official, adding that all this provides "the sponsors" unhindered access to the resources of those countries.

According Shoigu, "color revolutions" have increasingly been gaining the form of armed struggle, using all available means, including information war and special purpose forces.

"To increase the effect, military force can be used to the full extent. The war against Serbia, the strikes on Libya, the intervention in the conflict in Syria are a confirmation of that," he warned.

In each scenario, Shoigu noted, the cause of foreign interference was different, but the scheme of its realization was "universal": information-related activities - military pressure - replacement of political leadership, and a change of foreign policy and economic vectors of a state.

If, the Russian minister added, they fail to replace a country's government, conditions are then created for armed conflict to take place in order to further shake up a government they do not like.

The war against Yugoslavia was also mentioned as a negative example by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who spoke after Shoigu, and Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and Deputy Defense Minister Valery Gerasimov.

Commenting on the situation in Ukraine, Gerasimov said that "the dynamic of events does not allow for any further predictions of future developments."

"But it can certainly be assumed that in the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis a decisive factor will be the strengthening of military force and the extent of its application, which will inevitably have a negative impact on the state of European security."

He warned that some Western countries have increased their anti-Russian rhetoric, while NATO's military groupings in the Baltic States, Poland, Romania have also been enhanced. That military alliance is also present in the waters of the Baltic, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, the general remarked.

"Under these circumstances we cannot remain indifferent to the events and will have to take measures in response," Gerasimov said, without specifying what those measures would be.

He also noted that conflicts within states ceased to be purely internal and increasingly take on an international character, warning that the use of non-state armed forces as the main instrument of force in conflicts leads to a growth of uncontrolled power in the world, such as terrorism, extremism, cross-border organized crime, and mercenaries.

"Whole regions are descending into chaos. This situation is just as dangerous for those against whom it is directed, as it is for those who created it. Color revolutions are one of the main sources of its origin," concluded Gerasimov.