Security and Religion: The Discursive Self-legitimation of the Chechen Authorities

Marat Iliyasov

doi:10.1163/22117954-bja10029

Abstract

Abstract This article analyses the official discourse of the Chechen authorities and posits that it reflects the government’s efforts as self-legitimation. This investigation seeks to identify the mechanisms exploited by the Chechen regime to boost self-legitimacy by examining the ‘News’ programme on the Chechen state television channel ‘Grozny’, which, in the authoritarian setting of Chechnya, became the government’s mouthpiece and a propagator of official discourse. To provide for the context and to boost findings, the study is complemented by a discursive analysis of one more historical-political television programme and a political advertisement that was broadcast by the same channel during the period in which the fieldwork took place. The collected data is processed using Critical Discourse Analysis.

Highlights

On 16 April 2018, the Chechen Republic celebrated its ‘Day of Peace’ for the ninth time
Regular observation of the ‘News’ programme shows that it covers a number of distinct themes: politics, security, religion, economics,construction, war, tourism, celebration, folklore, honouring the memory of Akhmat Kadyrov, leisure of the Chechen president and his family, R
The advertisement begins by presenting a schoolboy, who says that he likes his beautiful shiny city [Grozny] and that he has many friends there, including ‘the friend of all children Ramzan Kadyrov’

Summary

Introduction

On 16 April 2018, the Chechen Republic celebrated its ‘Day of Peace’ for the ninth time. Keywords Chechnya – Kadyrov – security – religion – discourse – legitimation – regime Using the theoretical-methodological approach of Critical Discourse Analysis/cda (Van Dijk, 2001; Fairclough and Wodak, 1997), this article answers the question, what mechanisms do Chechen authorities use to support self-legitimation and what sources do they refer to in their claims to legitimacy?

Results

Conclusion