Content analysis of the Russian press before and after the Ukraine crisis: Russian-Canadian relations in the Arctic: hope for better?

Abstract

ABSTRACTThere has been an ongoing debate about how to handle Russia in a Canadian foreign policy in the Arctic. Despite some speculations about the dynamics of future relations between the Arctic players after the Ukraine crisis, few have looked closely at the domestic reaction of the Russian audience to Canada-Russia relations. This research uses content analysis of the Russian press before and after the events in Ukraine in March 2014. This paper will examine the dynamics of Russian-Canadian diplomatic relations from the perspectives of the Russian public media. The comparison between the current academic literature on the subject with the Russian domestic press showed that both sources came to similar conclusions: Russia is looking for peaceful, non-confrontational cooperation in the Arctic. At the same time, the Russian public media emphasized the importance of the role of a new Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Chrystia Freeland in the Arctic politics. This paper is an effort to understand how newspapers have been portraying the two countries when it comes to the Arctic.