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From a threatening “Muslim migrant” back to the conspiring “West:” race, religion, and nationhood on Russian television during Putin's third presidency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Vera Tolz Open the ORCID record for Vera Tolz [Opens in a new window]
Vera Tolz*
Affiliation:
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
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*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article analyzes official discourse of the nation during Vladimir Putin's third presidency, as reflected in Russian television coverage of Islam and migration. It argues that the replacement of earlier deliberately ambiguous definitions of Russian nationhood with clearly framed exclusive visions reflects the change in the regime's legitimation strategy from one based on economic performance to one based on its security record. In this context, the systematic promotion of Russian ethnonationalism for the purpose of achieving the regime's general stability began not at the time of Crimea's annexation, as it is often assumed, but at the time of Putin's reelection amidst public protests in 2012. The goal of representing the authorities as attentive to public grievances in a society where opinion polls register high levels of xenophobia has prompted state-controlled broadcasters to use ethnoracial definitions of the nation that they had previously avoided. The media campaigns analyzed here also reflect abrupt changes in the precise identity of Russia's main Others. Such instrumentally adopted sharp discursive swings are unlikely to constitute an appropriate tool for societal consensus management and for the achievement of political stability in the long term.

Keywords

Islammigrationnationalismtelevisionofficial discourse
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 45 , Issue 5 , September 2017 , pp. 742 - 757
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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