Vladimir Putin’s war rhetoric between cold reflection and furious hatred

Abstract The article aims at elucidating V. Putin’s war rhetoric by two of his nationwide broadcasted speeches delivered at the same location (the St. George’s Hall in the Kremlin Palace) to the same auditory (the two chambers of the Russian parliament) on two similar occasions: the annexation of the Crimea (18.3.2014) and the annexation of four partly occupied Ukrainian territories (30.9. 2022). Despite these commonalities, the contrast between the two speeches could not be more striking. The triumphant 2014 appearance took place during a rise of patriotic enthusiasm in Russian society. Putin’s verbal legitimation of the annexation was based on a host of pseudo-rational arguments (mostly historical analogies) related to the history of Crimea, Russia and NATO’s approaching Russia’s borders in space and time. By contrast, the 2022 speech was held after several defeats of the invaders’ army on the occupied Ukrainian territories and Putin’s announcement of partial mobilization. 77% of the whole speech is now dedicated to the West’s alleged crimes, including colonialism and US subjugation of its “vassals”, but also a moral degeneration culminating in Satanism. The Western threat is thus located on the ideological axis and described as an attack against traditional values, with “Russophobia” being a new manifestation of racism. The analysis is based on a mixed approach combining proximisation theory, argumentation theory and Neo-Gricean pragmatics.