Russia's pro-Kremlin movement fears future polls may be used as triggers for protest

MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. Activists of the Anti-Maidan movement believe Russian opposition forces may seize the opportunity of September 2015 regional elections and future parliamentary and presidential polls to mount a "color revolution" in Russia.

The warning comes from a leader in a movement set up to oppose changes of political regime through street protest, named after upheavals that forced former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from power in Kiev.

To prevent this, the movement will prepare its observers to the elections, Nikolay Starikov told reporters on Thursday. He said "the center of gravity" in the protest movement was now shifting from Moscow to regional centers.

"Pro-Western forces have chosen Novosibirsk [Siberia], Kaluga [central Russia] and Kostroma [central Russia]," he said. These are the regions where candidates from the opposition coalition RPR-Parnas and the Party of Progress of opposition leader Alexey Navalny plan to stand in elections.

Starikov, co-chairman of the Great Fatherland Party, also noted that Western diplomats, notably from the US, had recently been frequenting regions in the Urals and Siberia.

He added that apart from this year’s elections, opposition forces looked to Duma elections in 2016 and the 2018 presidential campaign as possible triggers for a

color revolution.

"We can already now forecast with a certain degree of certainty the activity they may transform into certain ‘orange technologies’. Western media and some civic activists and oppositionists inside the country state in advance that the elections will certainly be rigged," Starikov added.

"Then independent observers at polling stations confirm this. After that, certain media content is created to force people onto the streets and a coup takes place. We will be preparing observers to oppose this," he said.

Elections to legislative assemblies will be held in the Novosibirsk, Kaluga and Kostroma regions on September 13.