Arktis Rusijos politiniame diskurse: V. Putino naratyvo dekonstravimas 2012-2018 m. laikotarpiu

• Main Author: Budrytė, Erika
• Other Authors: Andrijauskas, Konstantinas
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: Lithuanian; English
• Published: Institutional Repository of Vilnius University 2018
• Subjects: Arctic; Protector; Arktis; Arktis*; Climate change; Northern Sea Route
• Online Access: http://vu.oai.elaba.lt/documents/29825039.pdf; http://vu.lvb.lt/VU:ELABAETD29825039&prefLang=en_US

Research object is the official website of the President of Russia (www.en.kremlin.ru), containing all the political statements of V. Putin during the period of 05 2012 – 04 2018. The framing of the Arctic in the official statements of Russian political actors has been analyzed in a fairly narrow period (2008–2015) and mainly concentrated on the analysis of the media. With rising rivalry between the countries interested in the Arctic affairs, the question of the Arctic narrative has become more meaningful. The aim is to analyze how the narrative of Arctic is being created and framed by Putin in his political statements in his third presidential term. Five tasks were set: analyze the narrative, positioning and framing theories; examine Russia’s historical Arctic narratives and frameworks they are consisted with; by applying content analysis method, identify key categories of the Arctic narrative founded in the political statements of Putin; distinguish between framing measures, assessing how the Russian – Arctic relationship is positioned; evaluate how the Arctic narrative was formed during third Putin's term while identifying historical continuity of narrative creation. The main findings of this study are the following. Russia develops the image of the Arctic protector, which in turn makes it possible to take the leading position. Putin emphasizes Arctic as particularly vulnerable region and seeks to consolidate Russia as the country most concerned Arctic’s security. It results in an unprecedented militarization, which becomes the justification for Russia's defensive position. The argument is reinforced by the ideas to protect region's environment, national interests and to manage the insecurity threatened by other states. The development of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) is also used as a motive for strengthening the country's military power in the Arctic. Russia’s development of NSR highlights a certain paradox. Putin positions himself as a defender of the Russian Arctic by arguing the damage caused by the previous generations, climate change and the consequent aspiration to protect the region from expansion of other countries. However, when the Russian shipping route becomes more obtainable due to climate change, the paradox arises while talking about grand plans for making the route the most competitive in the world. As Arctic‘s growing economic and industrial development potential (NSR, energy projects) opens up, Russia positions itself as a major nation and mediating leader between Europe and Asia. While Russia possess self-encouraging cooperation and equal distribution of forces among all states, it is still clear that Putin's narrative is being drafted to emphasize Russia's distinction and superiority over other actors. Moreover, Arctic enables Russia to position itself in an altruistic perspective. The aim is to show that Moscow’s actions in the Arctic is either due to well-being of Russian society or global benefits. It may be assumed that these two narratives seem to contradict each other as they distinguish the audience for which they are presented: the first narrative is naturally more emphasized to the domestic audience and the second is more often referred to the international audience. However, it has been observed that the global benefits are also ideally presented to the domestic community, thus creating a position of Russia as a country of great importance for projects of global significance. It can be said that it serves the strengthening of the arctic identity of Russian society and and its leadership. Findings from this research provide more detailed understanding of Russia’s Arctic identity. The research could be continued from two perspectives: 1) analysis of the reaction of Russian society to the creation of current Arctic narrative and its comparison to the positions implied by Russian political actors; 2) comparative analysis of all the narratives of other Arctic countries.