The European Union in the Russian Press

Abstract

Analysis of articles devoted to the EU and EU–Russia relations in broadly representative Russian national newspapers reveals the level of attention paid to the EU, the kind of EU image – positive or negative – that dominates in Russian media, and the characteristics that are associated with the EU in the Russian media. The evidence suggests that the EU image is rather stable and slightly positive. However, the EU's image is also ambivalent, and the majority of EU characteristics are bipolar, with negative and positive characteristics opposing each other. The frequency of mentioning positive and negative characteristics is broadly balanced, confirming the conclusion that the EU image in the Russian press is neutral or slightly positive. This research was carried out with the financial support of INTAS Fellowship Grant for Young Scientists No. 03-55-887, Project ‘Russian elite awareness and perceptions of the EU’ and of the Russian Foundation for Humanities, Project No. 06-03-02106а, ‘Image policy of the European Union: Experience for Russia’. Opinions expressed in the article are strictly personal and cannot be associated with INTAS, RFH or any other institution with which the author is affiliated. The author thanks the Department of Politics of the University of Glasgow for the opportunity to carry out research in the department. He also wishes to acknowledge the very helpful comments of Stephen White.