Putin Vows to Defend Ex-Soviet Allies from ‘Color Revolutions’

  • Russian leader says Kazakh unrest fueled in part from outside
  • Russian-led troops helped put down protests in Kazakhstan
Vladimir Putin speaks during a Collective Security Treaty Organization videoconference on Jan. 10. Photographer: Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/AP Photo
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President Vladimir Putin vowed to protect Russia and its ex-Soviet allies from what he called outside efforts to destabilize their governments with public protests, just days after Russian-led troops helped Kazakh authorities subdue nationwide demonstrations.

“We won’t let anyone disturb the situation in our homes and won’t allow scenarios of so-called color revolutions to be played out,” Putin told a televised video conference Monday of leaders of the six-nation Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Moscow-dominated bloc whose deployment of troops to Kazakhstan was the first time it had sent forces to shore up a government under pressure from popular unrest.