Russia as the Constitutive Other in the Presidential Rhetoric of Petro Poroshenko

Abstract

The article reconstructs basic ideological aspects of the image of Russia as a negative Constituent Other in the political rhetoric of the Ukrainian president P. Poroshenko. Drawing on all 315 texts of public speeches and appeals made by P. Poroshenko during his presidency, the article shows that rhetorical construction of the image of Russia relies on the basic concept of “empire”. Imperial status is presented as an essential characteristic of Russia, which does not depend on any historically defined phase of its development (including Soviet modernization and the post-Soviet period) and manifests itself in the effort of the negative Other to liquidate Ukraine’s status as subject actor of international relations and as an independent nation state. Modeling Russia’s image as a constant and atemporal aggressor and a source of threats implies casting in fixed permanent terms its influence on Ukraine as colonial policy, inclusive of the present phase of Russian-Ukrainian relations.