Disinfo: The Arab Spring was organised by the West

Summary

18 December 2010 is considered to be the starting point of the riots, unrest and uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa collectively referred to as the Arab Spring.

US and transnational foundations for democracy-promotion were operating in many of the countries where the Arab Spring began. Their activists, who had been trained years before, were at the epicentre of events and passed on colour revolution techniques to the local population. These activists had previously developed such techniques in the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Balkans.

But the attempt by the US and the West to reshape the Middle East and impose Western democracy on the region failed. It is important to note that ISIS emerged in 2013 as a result of the Arab Spring.

Disproof

Disinformation about the Arab Spring presented with no evidence. This article’s message is consistent with pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about popular protests around the world allegedly incited and funded by the US and other Western states, including colour revolutions in post-Soviet states, the Arab Spring revolts, Euromaidan in Ukraine, protests in Catalonia and others. This narrative claims that protests, disorders and civil uprisings are never manifestations of popular discontent but are "colour revolutions" directed and funded by Western intelligence services or other Western actors in order to destabilise targeted foreign states and bring about regime change.

When the Arab Spring revolts broke out throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East beginning in 2010-2011, Russian media increasingly spread conspiracy theories portraying the uprisings as nefarious “color revolutions” hatched in the United States. Senior Russia security and military officials claimed that the Arab Spring, which got much of its initial traction through social media such as Facebook and Twitter, was a new subversive methodology designed by Western intelligence services to destabilise societies and bring about regime change, first in the Arab world and subsequently in Russia itself.

However, there is no evidence that the Arab Spring uprisings were orchestrated and funded by the US or other Western governments and intelligence services. Serious scholars and analysts point to a combination of political, economic and social factors that triggered the spread of protests and upheavals in many Arab countries.

Read similar cases claiming that the West has launched a second wave of colour revolutions , beginning with the Arab Spring in the Greater Middle East and that the Arab Spring was directed by global élites, the US and some EU member-states.

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  • Reported in: Issue 225
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 28/12/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Italian, English
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: US
  • Keywords: West, Arab Spring, Colour revolutions, Middle East, Conspiracy theory
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