Authors

Discussion

This paper analyses how framing of Russia’s main international allies and adversaries by state-backed media has changed during Vladimir Putin’s quarter century in power. Seizing control of Russia’s main news media was one of Putin’s first acts as president. How Russia’s state-controlled media presents other countries, therefore, in large part reflects the Putin administration’s perceptions of those countries vis-à-vis its own values and interests. Changes in how other states are presented by Russia’s media provide a window into the shifting values and perceptions that underpin Moscow’s foreign policy making. To date, scholarship on how values and identity influence Russian foreign policy have been largely limited to Russia’s relations with the United States and Ukraine. By including analysis of media coverage of China, Japan and Britain, as well the US and Ukraine, this paper aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of the values informing Russia’s foreign policy over time. The five countries were chosen based on the significance of their political and/or economic relations with Russia and on the frequency of their coverage in the Russian media. In examining media framing of multiple countries that are usually studied separately, the paper investigate how changes in Russia’s relations with one country impacts its relations with others. 

By analysing news content in the context of domestic as well as international political developments, the paper draws out the confluence of events leading to Russia’s estrangement from the West, its alliance with China, and its war in Ukraine. The paper further examines how the interplay between the state, media and society has led to changes in the values underpinning Russia’s foreign policy. Public opinion and media preferences are examined as independent variables influencing news content alongside the Putin administration’s foreign policy objectives.

Findings are based on analyse of news coverage on state-owned Russian television Channel 1; on government news sites ria.ru and rt.com; and in government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Research also draws on fieldwork in Moscow, including interviews with over 40 Russia-based journalists on their news selection processes.