Russia Before and After Crimea

Abstract

Explores the momentous changes that have taken place in the Russian national identity discourse since Putin’s return to the presidency Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 marked a watershed in post-Cold War European history and brought East–West relations to a low point. At the same time, by selling this fateful action in starkly nationalist language, the Putin regime achieved record-high popularity. This book shows how, after the large-scale 2011–2013 anti-Putin demonstrations in major Russian cities and the parallel rise in xenophobia related to the Kremlin’s perceived inability to deal with the influx of Central Asian labour migrants, the annexation of Crimea generated strong ‘rallying around the nation’ and ‘rallying around the leader’ effects. The contributors to this collection go beyond the news headlines, focusing on aspects of Russian society that have often passed under the radar, such as intellectual racism and growing xenophobia. These developments are contextualised by chapters that provide a broader overview of the latest developments in Russian nationalism – both state-level nationalism and independent, bottom–up-driven societal nationalism, and the tensions between the two are explored.