Thousands of opposition demonstrators assembled outside the Belgrade City Assembly, on Sunday, to express their dissatisfaction with the sweeping victory of Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) over the pro-EU Serbia Against Violence (SPN) coalition in last week's parliamentary elections. The protest escalated into violence when a faction of protesters tried to force open the doors of the building, leading to their dispersal by the police.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic referred to the incident as an endeavor toward a "color revolution."

"There is no revolution underway,” Vucic said in a public address. “Nothing will go their way,” he continued, referring to the protesters. “Those who swear to fight against violence have shown that they are real thugs.” 

The SPN coalition originated from anti-government demonstrations that followed two mass shootings in May. Although the initial focus of the protest movement was the resignation of Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic and intelligence chief Aleksandar Vulin, it quickly evolved to demand the overthrow of President Vucic's government.

NATO destroyed Yugoslavia.

NATO destroyed Afghanistan.

NATO destroyed Iraq

NATO destroyed Libya.

NATO destroyed Ukraine and now it wants to destroy Serbia, AGAIN.

In the last quarter century, there is no bigger force of destruction.

— Danny Haiphong (@SpiritofHo) December 24, 2023

Vucic asserted that the demonstration was financially supported by Western powers aiming to oust him from office due to his amicable ties with Russia and his refusal to relinquish Serbia's territorial claim to Kosovo, based on information obtained from foreign intelligence services.
  
In his Sunday address, he reiterated these accusations, expressing gratitude to unnamed "foreign services" for informing his security services about the preparations of the individuals involved.

On his account, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic conveyed appreciation to Russian security services for providing advance notice to Belgrade about potential disturbances in the capital.

“I feel that it is important, especially tonight, to stand up for Serbia and to thank the Russian security services who had that information and who shared it with us,” Brnabic said, as quoted by TV Pink on Sunday night.

"I can only say thank you, and it probably won’t be popular with those from the West," the Prime Minister said, stressing, "When we shared that information with everyone else, they said: ‘Well, that’s Russian disinformation, that’s spreading fake news."

It is worth noting that "color revolution" is a term used to refer to movements funded and organized by Western governments with the specific intent of toppling down governments opposed to the US and more generally western interests. 

The CIA has mostly been involved in orchestrating such revolutions, deploying a panoply of NGOs to fund protests and destabilize foreign governments. 

A report issued by #China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and a China-based internet security company named 360 detailed evidence of the #CIA being behind a great number of "color revolutions" aimed at the post-#Soviet space and other regions around the globe. pic.twitter.com/moXEmCqjkm

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) May 6, 2023

The first successful "color revolution" was carried out in Yugoslavia in the year 2000, with a US-backed student movement forcing the resignation of former President Slobodan Milosevic, the President who fought defensively against reactionary secessionists supported by US imperialism to divide Yugoslavia and was defeated following a NATO occupation campaign that destroyed several cities across Serbia. 

Read next: Beyond Manufacturing Consent: A world of color revolutions