Online Russia, today. How is Russia Today framing the events of the Ukrainian crisis of 2013 and what this framing says about the Russian regime’s legitimation strategies? The case of the Russian-language online platform of RT Margarita Kurdalanova 24th of June 2016 Graduate School of Social Sciences Authoritarianism in a Global Age Adele Del Sordi Dr. Andrey Demidov This page intentionally left blank Word count: 14 886 1 Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 3 1.Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 4 2.Literature Review .................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Legitimacy and legitimation ............................................................................................. 5 2.2. Legitimation in authoritarian regimes ............................................................................. 7 2.3 Media and authoritarianism .............................................................................................. 9 2.4 Propaganda and information warfare ............................................................................. 11 3.Case study ............................................................................................................................. 13 3.1 The Russian-Ukrainian conflict of 2013 ........................................................................ 13 3.2 The power of RT ............................................................................................................ 16 4. Research design .................................................................................................................... 18 4.1 Methodology .................................................................................................................. 18 4.2 Data collection ................................................................................................................ 19 4.3 Frames ............................................................................................................................ 20 4.4 Qualitative analysis ........................................................................................................ 21 4.5 Validity of results ........................................................................................................... 22 5. Findings ................................................................................................................................ 23 5.1 Security ....................................................................................................................... 23 5.2 Duty ............................................................................................................................ 24 5.3 Anti-Ukraine ............................................................................................................... 26 5.4 Anti-West ................................................................................................................... 27 5.5 Moral .......................................................................................................................... 28 5.6 History ........................................................................................................................ 29 5.7 Nationalism ................................................................................................................ 30 5.8 Information warfare .................................................................................................... 31 5.9 Frames count .............................................................................................................. 32 6.0 The presidential Crimean speech ................................................................................... 33 7. Discussion of Findings ......................................................................................................... 36 8. Theoretical implications ....................................................................................................... 38 9. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 40 10. RT articles cited ................................................................................................................. 42 11. Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 46 Word count: 14 886 2 Abstract Since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis in 2013, the Russian government has increasingly been engaging in media manipulation strategies. Often referred to as the greatest propaganda blitzkrieg in the history of information warfare, the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict brings forward the importance of online information in a globalising world. The following thesis aims to answer the question of how Russia Today is framing the events of the Ukrainian crisis, and further speculates about what such framing can say about Russia’s legitimation strategies. The data source for the analysis performed is the Russian-language version of RT, where the main audience targeted is the domestic one. Having prime focus on theories of legitimation, the thesis aims to understand the exact practices of legitimation rather than its outcome. The analysis of four events, including the official Crimean address of Vladimir Putin, confirmed the importance of nationalism as a frame popular within RT news reports. Furthermore, the thesis yields seven more categories further observing the legitimation strategies of the Russian-language online platform of RT. The first casualty when war comes is Truth — U.S. Senator Hiram Johnson, 1917 Word count: 14 886 3 1. Introduction The Russian annexation of Crimea and any subsequent events have led to civil unrest and mass protests all over Ukraine. Furthermore, the Russian Federation was strongly criticised by most of the Western world for the infringement of state sovereignty and unlawful actions against Ukraine. However, the importance of this conflict goes beyond Russia’s militaristic operations and the subsequent backlash from the Ukrainian and international community. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict of 2013 can be seen as an instance in which the concept of legitimation played a crucial role. It marked the role of media as a tool in legitimising Russia’s actions and presenting those actions as a brave countermeasure against “Ukronazis” and oppressors of the Russian people. For Russia, such legitimation practices were of great importance since no government or international law could have justified Russia’s actions against Ukraine. Russia’s propensity to seek legitimation is strongly underlined within Kremlin’s media. Despite the fact that the Kremlin’s media channels argued in favour of anti-fascism and ensuring the security of Russians as the main reasons behind the Crimean annexation, most international observers harbour significant doubts regarding the idea of Russian protection as a motive behind the conflict of 2013. A closer look at the narratives of the conflict suggests the presence of economic, political and foreign policy goals as more likely causes of the conflict. However, if media legitimation practices were used in order to justify Russia’s policy implementation, this raises questions about the role of legitimation within authoritarian regimes. In order to approach these questions, the current research takes a closer look at the Crimean crisis as presented by Russia’s official media channel. With the help of content analysis and category-based data observation, the research addresses the debate of how legitimacy affects authoritarian regimes. As the thesis will further illustrate, legitimacy and legitimation are concepts of great importance for the stability of regimes. The focus of the current thesis is the Russian-language version of RT where the practices of legitimation are targeted towards the domestic audience of Russia Today. As the thesis will later on discuss the fact that the audience of the Russian language RT is primarily the domestic one is in close correlation with the ways through which messages were framed by the media. This is most Word count: 14 886 4 visible in the performed comparison between RT articles and the Presidential official Crimean address where variance in between audiences targeted is present. In addition, the fact that only articles in Russian language have been analysed could provide further information about the exact nature of messages broadcasted to the educated, internet-literate audience of the online Russian RT. Moreover, the act of legitimation provides feasible information for the measurement of the effects legitimacy has on regimes’ stability. In this paper’s analysis of the research, such legitimation practices will be derived from RT’s online articles, further exploring the importance of media manipulation and propaganda in the 21st century. Prior to that, a theoretical reflection of the relevant concepts will be provided, where the importance of legitimation is further explored. This theoretical section is followed by summary of the specific narratives of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The same narratives will be further discussed in the following chapter, which