Comillas Journal of International Relations | nº 03 | 028-043 [2015] [ISSN 2386-5776] 28 DOI: cir.i03.y2015.003 DISPUTED DEMOCRACY: THE INSTRUMENTALISATION OF THE CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY IN US-RUSSIA RELATIONS DURING THE GEORGE W. BUSH AND PUTIN PRESIDENCIES Democracia reñida: la instrumentalización del concepto de democracia en las relaciones entre los Estados Unidos y Rusia a lo largo de los mandatos presidenciales de George W. Bush y Putin Ruth Deyermond Lecturer in Post-Soviet Security Autor King’s College London E-mail:
[email protected] The conflict over the idea of democracy was a key factor in the deterioration of US-Russia bilateral relations during the second term of the George W. Bush presidency (2005-2009). US Abstract governmental and non-governmental support for democratisation in the post-Soviet region was viewed by Russia as a cover for the advancement of US national interests in the region, at the expense of those of Russia. In response, Russia developed practical and discursive strategies to counter it. Debates about the status of Russian democracy, about the idea of “sovereign de- mocracy”, and of the democratic (or otherwise) conduct of US foreign affairs, all emerged in this period as sites – and evidence – of dispute between the two states. This article argues that pro-active US democracy promotion rhetoric combined with a clear pattern of instrumentali- sation of the concept of democracy encouraged – in the contexts of a more broadly assertive US foreign policy and the “Colour Revolutions” – an answering instrumentalisation of the idea and use of “democracy” by Russian political elites, who utilised the concept as the basis for a discursive challenge to the US’s global dominance.