Content analysis of the Russian press before and after the Ukraine crisis: Russian-Canadian relations in the Arctic: hope for better?

ABSTRACT

There has been an ongoing debate about how to handle Russia in a Canadian foreign policy in the Arctic. Despite some speculations about the dynamics of future relations between the Arctic players after the Ukraine crisis, few have looked closely at the domestic reaction of the Russian audience to Canada-Russia relations. This research uses content analysis of the Russian press before and after the events in Ukraine in March 2014. This paper will examine the dynamics of Russian-Canadian diplomatic relations from the perspectives of the Russian public media. The comparison between the current academic literature on the subject with the Russian domestic press showed that both sources came to similar conclusions: Russia is looking for peaceful, non-confrontational cooperation in the Arctic. At the same time, the Russian public media emphasized the importance of the role of a new Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Chrystia Freeland in the Arctic politics. This paper is an effort to understand how newspapers have been portraying the two countries when it comes to the Arctic.

RÉSUMÉ

Un débat est en cours sur la manière de traiter la Russie dans le cadre d'une politique étrangère canadienne dans l'Arctique. Malgré quelques spéculations sur la dynamique des futures relations entre les acteurs de l'Arctique après la crise ukrainienne, peu ont observé de près la réaction intérieure du public russe aux relations entre le Canada et la Russie. Cette recherche utilise une analyse du contenu de la presse russe avant et après les événements de mars 2014 en Ukraine. Cet article examine la dynamique des relations diplomatiques russo‐canadiennes du point de vue des médias publics russes. La comparaison entre la littérature universitaire actuelle sur le sujet et la presse russe a montré que les deux sources arrivaient à des conclusions similaires : la Russie est à la recherche d'une coopération pacifique et non conflictuelle dans l'Arctique. Dans le même temps, les médias russes ont souligné l'importance du rôle d'une nouvelle ministre des Affaires étrangères du Canada, Chrystia Freeland, dans la politique arctique. Cet article a pour objectif d'améliorer la compréhension de la manière dont les journaux ont décrit les deux pays en ce qui concerne l'Arctique.

KEYWORDS:

• Russia
• Arctic
• Canada
• militarization
• Chrystia Freeland

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. Rob Huebert and Ryan Dean for their valuable comments and suggestions on various drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Jen Sidorova is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of Calgary, where she works as a teaching assistant and a sessional instructor. She is a member of the International Arctic Social Sciences Association.

Notes

1 The author prefers using the term “Ukraine’s crisis” instead of “Crimea’s annexation.” The term “Crimea’s annexation” is used throughout the paper because it is more familiar for the Canadian reader.

2 The references on articles are available in Annex 1 and 2.

3 The translations from Russian to English were made by the author.