ABSTRACT
The ‘colour revolutions’ in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan had far-reaching repercussions within the former Soviet Union. These revolutions, starting in 2003 with the displacement of President Eduard Shevardnadze in Georgia’s ‘Rose Revolution,’ seemed to signal that the semi-democratic states that developed in the wake of independence were vulnerable to strong opposition movements. The question immediately arose – were governments in other areas of the former Soviet Union, especially those with political competition but less-than-full democracy, such as Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia, also vulnerable?
