MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti) - International terrorism, economic non-competitiveness and the possibility of "color revolutions" were the principal threats to Russia's national sovereignty a presidential aide said in a text published on Friday.
Vladislav Surkov, speaking at a meeting of the pro-Kremlin United Russia Party on February 7 and quoted on the party's official site, said a "soft takeover" based on modern "orange methods" in the face of the nations' reduced ability to counter foreign interference posed a serious danger.
The "orange revolution" that swept Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to power a little more than a year ago on the back of protests against electoral fraud was echoed by similar events in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan last spring. Politicians in Russia said foreign-funded non-governmental organizations had played a major role in the revolutions, prompting concerns that similar processes could take place in Russia.
On the threat of external military attacks, he said that fortunately, this was highly improbable.
On economic competitiveness, he said structural reforms had been drawn out for far too long.
"Huge government spending, inefficiency in the budget, and weak development in key areas of the economy all pose problems."
Russia's competitive advantages must be used and developed, he said.
"The idea of Russia as an energy superpower is, I think, fully consistent with this approach... The goal is not to become merely a huge raw materials producer, but to make full use of our capabilities, to develop them, and bring them to a new level of quality.
"To begin with, we must improve the quality of our fuel and energy complex, and not only buy equipment from the West. We must gain access to technology, exporting natural gas, oil, and oil products... We need expertise and new technology for this."
Surkov said Russia had strong potential in space exploration, defense, transport, and communications.
The presidential aide said he supported using national capital to maintain sovereignty in certain spheres.
"National [capital] does not necessarily imply state. But the fuel and energy complex, strategic communications, the financial system, and defense, should be predominantly Russian. The remaining sectors must be opened as much as possible to foreign investment, for thorough modernization.
"We should aim to play a role in the global economy among the new multinational corporations."
On the subject of "color revolutions", Surkov said, "this is also a very real threat to sovereignty."
"How this is done is well known: values are eroded, the government is declared ineffective, and internal conflicts are provoked. 'Orange' methods completely show this. I cannot say that this issue has been removed from the agenda, because if they managed to do this in four countries, why not do it in a fifth?
"Our friends in other countries could also in the future somehow attempt to repeat them."
The only way to prevent this is to "form a nationally oriented leading stratum of society," he said.
