Abstract:
The ideology of Russkiy mir which encompasses values of protection of
compatriots, the Orthodox Church’s role significance, the ethno-nationalist
geopolitical position, and the revival of the Soviet Union legacy has become an
integral part of Russia’s national identity narrative in Vladimir Putin’s third
presidential term. After the annexation of Crimea, the narrative of Russkiy mir
became one of the main defining concepts that explain how the Russia-Ukraine
conflict is defined, constructed, and understood. As a socially-constructed concept
of politics and culture, Russkiy mir must adapt in accordance with discourses in the
domestic and international landscape to justify Russia’s invasion on February 24th,
2022. This thesis seeks to find answer in “how the strategic narrative formation
process of Russkiy mir was being implemented by Vladimir Putin in order to justify
the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war?”. This research uses the theory of the formation of
strategic narrative to identify the strategic goals of a political actor for both
domestic and international audience and the types of communication that the actor
uses, and critical discourse analysis method is used to uncover how Vladimir Putin
utilized components of discourses available from domestic and international
settings to construct narratives for strategic purposes. To summarize the research
finding, by analyzing the Russian Federation Presidential Address on February 24th,
2022, it can be concluded that Vladimir Putin’s strategic narrative formation process
of Russkiy mir was heavily dependent on the three-dimensional conception of
discourse. Using agenda setting and policy legitimacy effort, Vladimir Putin has
utilizes discourse practices of Russkiy mir as an ideology of cultural linkage through language, religion, and the belief of Motherland that politicize compatriots to define Russia’s relations with Ukraine and the West. Socio-cultural practices in the domestic and international landscape post-Crimea annexation to the 2022 Russia-
Ukraine war have also shaped the discourse components of Russkiy mir contained
in his presidential address to be more explicit and offensive. This instance confirms
that representational force became the main type of narrative communication that
Vladimir Putin use to attack Ukraine and the West.
