Marilyn Young1; Michael Launer1; 1 Florida State University , United States
Discussion
During the period February 21–24, 2022, Vladimir Putin organized four public events in anticipation of the start of the “special military operation”—the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Through these events, Putin and his advisors laid out their justification for the war—a justification that consisted of multiple grievances against the West (NATO and the United States) amounting to a vast conspiratist explanation of recent history. This presentation provides an analysis of the transcripts as an instance of “composite rhetoric”—multiple speakers in multiple venues promoting a unified narrative.
Following a brief exegesis of Putin’s 2007 speech at the Munich Security Conference, we analyze these four nationally-televised presentations, which encompass nearly 21,000 words of Russian text:
February 21 – a meeting of the Russian Security Council; February 21 - Putin’s speech recognizing the independence of the Lugansk and Donetsk Peoples’ Republics; February 22 – a press conference; February 24 – Putin’s speech announcing the invasion of Ukraine.
