Instrumentalizing the recent past? The new Cold War narrative in Russian public space after 2014

ABSTRACT

There has been much debate about whether the US and Russia are locked in a new Cold War, but much less attention as to how the term is used in Russian political discourse. Through a close analysis of public statements, I analyze how the Cold War narrative has been used in the Russian public space since 2014, and assess how the “resuscitation” of the Cold War paradigm has been used by Moscow’s political elites, in order to discuss its impact on foreign policy. I document a distinct shift in Russian policymakers’ use of the term in 2016 and trace this shift to domestic political considerations.

KEYWORDS:

• New Cold War
• instrumentalization
• Russian foreign policy
• former Soviet space

Acknowledgments

An initial version of this paper was presented at the OSCE Academy Conference “Post-Communism 25+: Reflections on Social, Economic & Political Transitions,” Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, October 2016.

Notes

1. The use of a numerical adjective before the phrase “Cold War” is notable, as it suggests the possibility of the existence of another Cold War.

2. Named after Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev (1966–1982), it implied that no member of the Warsaw Pact could leave the organization or take any measures to liberate itself from the grip of totalitarian order (Ahrari 2007, 278).

3. Dugin is known as geopolitician and one of the main Russian exponents of neo-Eurasiansm. In 2014, because of his radical statements regarding the Ukrainian crisis, he was fired from Moscow State University, where he was a professor and Head of the Department of Sociology of International Relations.

4. The Izborskii Club was created in 2012 in Russian village of Izborsk, Pskov Oblast. Financed by the Kremlin, its members include the most prominent Russian conservative right-wing intellectuals, such as Aleksandr Dugin, Aleksandr Prokhanov, Sergei Glaz’ev, Natalya Narotchnitskaya, Mikhail Delyagin, Mikhail Leont’ev, Bishop Avgustin (Anisimov), etc.

5. The Valdai Discussion Club is a Russian think tank established in 2004. It is a platform for dialogue involving the Russian and international intellectual elite about Russian political, social, and economic developments. Formally it is not a government organization and receives funding from large companies such as Alfa Bank, VTB, and Metalloinvest, yet the biggest event is its annual presidential conference. In addition, Valdai publications reflect many of the views of the Russian government and the global agenda the Kremlin would like to promote (see Vendil Pallin and Oxenstierna 2017, 26).

6. The “rally ‘round the flag effect” refers to the sudden and substantial increase in public approval of the president that occurs in response to certain kinds of dramatic international events involving the country (Norman 2013, 1).