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Abstract
National and foreign political identities are discursively constructed, not least through the media. Starting from the contention that Europe serves as the main Other used to define the idea of Russia, this article uses media texts (online and press) to analyse how Russia is constructed as a foreign policy actor in relation to Europe and the ‘West’ more generally. In so doing, the article draws on three discourses around Russia’s foreign policy: ‘Russia as Europe’; ‘Russia as part of Greater Europe’; and ‘Russia as Alternative Europe’. The article suggests that discursive developments in the 2000s have paved the way for a return of Cold War discourses in characterising relations between Russia and the West.
Notes
The research for this article was conducted while the author was based at the University of Glasgow.
1 ‘Freedom of the Press: Russia’, 2015 Press Freedom Report, Freedom House, available at: freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2015/Russia, accessed 22 February 2018.
2 The website, https://www.russ.ru, disappeared from the web in 2015.
3 ‘Leshek Miller: Pol’sha ne sobiraetsya ogranichivat’ svoi kontakty s Rossiei’, Strana.ru, 21 February 2003. See the Appendix for a full list of the articles discussed.
4 ‘Konservatizm i Evropa’, Russkii zhurnal, 4 February 2003.
5 ‘Udar po chelnokam. S 1 Okt-ya Pol’sha vvodit vizy dlya Rossiyan’, Izvestiya, 1 October 2003.
6 ‘Za Susanina! S 1 Okt-ya Pol’sha vvodit vizy dlya Rossiyan’, Izvestiya, 29 September 2003.
7 ‘Poslednii kirpich v vizovoi stene. Ukraintsy lyubyat polyakov bol’she, chem russkie’, Nezavisimaya gazeta, 1 October 2003.
8 ‘Estoniya trebuet izvinenii’, Strana.ru, 23 January 2003.
9 ‘Lavrov predlozhil ES razobrat’sya s zayavleniem prezidenta Rossii’, Lenta.ru, 10 April 2003.
10 ‘Rossiiskie ugrozy poshli na pol’zu Kievu’, Nezavisimaya gazeta, 23 May 2003.
11 ‘SSHA i Pol’sha pokryvayut agressiyu Gruzii’, Pravda, 9 August 2003.
12 ‘MK Revyu—my eshche povoem?’, Moskovskii komsomolets, 9 November 2003.
13 ‘Obstoyatel’stva—Pepel i al’maz’, Rossiiskaya gazeta, 11 December 2003.
14 ‘“Dver” v Evropu’ i klyuchi Svyatogo Petra’, Zavtra, 27 June 2003.
15 ‘Smertel’naya upavka—2’, Zavtra, 11 July 2003.
16 ‘Moskva vne igry. Vladimiru Putinu nado spasat’ svoyu vneshnyuyu politiku’, Nezavisimaya gazeta, 9 June 2003.
17 ‘I. Sergeev. Slavyanskie parlamentarii za edinstvo’, Byulleten’, 23 June 2008.
18 ‘Russkii vopros’ roskolol Evropu’, Izvestiya, 2 September 2008.
19 ‘Avgust 2008-go: uroki i posledstviya’, Izvestiya, 11 September 2008.
20 ‘Neopredelennost’ na vysshem urovne’, Pravda, 4 April 2008.
21 ‘V boi Amerika poidet i poluchit apperkot?’, Komsomol’skaya pravda, 21 August 2008.
22 ‘Tranzit na prodazhu’, Nezavisimaya gazeta, 4 September 2008.
23 ‘Ukraina pod nachalom pol’skikh polkovnikov’, Byulleten’, 1 July 2003.
24 ‘Ukraina—mini-imperiya’, Russkii zhurnal, 22 January 2003.
25 ‘Mir i Rossiya’, Rossiiskaya gazeta, 11 November 2003.
26 ‘Opasnaya igra Moskvy i uroki istorii’, Byulleten’, 7 July 2008.
27 ‘Karta russkogo: perspektivy realizatsii’, Byulleten’, 13 October 2008.
28 ‘Yushchenko poprosil’sya v NATO’, Strana.ru, 14 March 2008.
29 ‘Proshchania s Ukrainoi?’, Zavtra, 9 April 2008.
30 ‘Yulii Kvitsinskii: Eto nekrasivaya i truslivaya pozitsiya’, Pravda, 3 April 2008.
31 ‘Kvasnevskii: “Zablokiruem rossiiskie investitsii v ES”’, Inopressa.ru, 29 August 2008.
32 ‘A ya ne ispugalsya?’, Lenta.ru, 24 November 2008.
33 ‘Segonyashaya Gruziya opasna dlya mira’, Pravda, 31 October 2008.
34 ‘Kortezh Saakashvili i Kachin’skogo vstretili ognem?’, Komsomol’skaia pravda, 25 November 2008.
35 ‘Saakashvili pustil ministrov po miru’, Nezavisimaya gazeta, 22 April 2008.
36 ‘V Vashingtone proshli slushaniya po Rossii’, Kommersant’’, 16 April 2008.
37 ‘Soglasno reitingu svobody Rossiya afrikanskaya strana’, Novayagazeta.ru, 6 May 2003.
38 ‘Rossiyane—tozhe evropeitsy. Vizovyi rezhim mezhdu ES i Rossiei ne vygoden ni odnoi iz storon’, Izvestiya, 30 May 2003.
39 ‘Avgust 2008-go: uroki i posledstviya’, Izvestiya, 11 September 2008.
40 ‘Mezhdu Rossiei i Pol’shei vveden vizovyi rezhim’, Newsru.com, 1 October 2003.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rutger von Seth
Rutger von Seth, Affiliate Researcher, Department of Languages and Literature, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Emails: [email protected]; [email protected].