Russia’s Foreign Policy Discourse and Its Features at Crisis Periods on the Example of Relations between Russia and Ukraine (2008-2009 and 2014-2015)

The study of the Russia-Ukraine relations has received a great deal of attention in the field of international affairs over the last ten years. However, previous research on this subject neglected Russian foreign policy discourse towards Ukraine, its features and its impact on the policy. In this study, we tried to determine changing and constant features of the Russian foreign policy discourse towards Ukraine and analyse its implications for a real policy. To this end, we sampled the speeches of key Russian policymakers made at two separate periods of 2008-2009 and 2014-2015 and conducted critical discourse-analysis, which helped to disclose constant features of Russian discourse and its interdependence with pursued policy. The results of the current paper may contribute to future studies of Russia-Ukraine relations and help to improve the analytical framework for Russian foreign policy in the post-soviet region.