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Abstract
Utilising discourse analysis to evaluate Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov’s public speeches as part of public diplomacy, this study deconstructs the discursive practices of Russian political elites in Russia–Japan relations. The data analysis demonstrates that, when speaking from a position of power, Putin and Lavrov delegitimise Japan’s political decision-making sovereignty and the role of the Japanese public in the negotiation process. This article argues that even though the discursive practices of Russian political elites are oriented towards a foreign public, the impact on their domestic legitimacy is greater.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 See, for example, Kratochwil (Citation2011), Pouliot and Cornut (Citation2015).
2 See also Holmes (Citation2015).
3 See Foucault (Citation1977) for the original concept; also see Dreyfus and Rabinow (Citation1983) for discussion and critique.
4 ‘Policy Speech by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo to the 183rd Session of the Diet’, Prime Minister of Japan and his Cabinet, 28 February 2013, available at: https://japan.kantei.go.jp/96_abe/statement/201302/28siseuhousin_e.html, accessed 8 March 2019.
5 ‘Nichiro seishōnen kōryū jigyō sankasha no koe (2018–2019)’, Nichiro seinen kōryū sentā, 2023, available at: https://www.jrex.or.jp/voice-participants/, accessed 31 May 2023.
6 Sputniknews.jp serves as the Japanese-language counterpart of the Sputnik news agency and, along with RT, functions as a primary media platform for Russia’s public diplomacy efforts.
7 This refers to a doll that has a head which repetitively bobs when touched or manipulated. Putin’s remark emphasises the idea that NATO members unquestioningly agree with everything they are instructed to do by the United States. In the English translation, the phrase was modified to convey a more subdued meaning: ‘They all nodded in passive agreement’.
8 This is the English equivalent of the original idiom—myach na ikh storone—with Putin’s substitution of (ice hockey) ‘puck’ for ‘ball’.
9 ‘Russians Protest Kuril Islands Handover to Japan’, France 24, 20 January 2019, available at: https://www.france24.com/en/20190120-russians-protest-kuril-islands-handover-japan, accessed 2 March 2022.
10 ‘Kurily ne sdadim': kak proshla aktsiya protiv peredachi Kuril’skikh ostrovov Yaponii’, BBC, 20 January 2019, available at: https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-46937746, accessed 31 May 2023.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ignat Vershinin
Ignat Vershinin, University of Tsukuba, Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577, Japan. Email: [email protected]