Description
Many scholars of 1990s Russia argue that the post-Soviet state was largely demilitarised during this period. They largely attribute the end of the Cold War and internal political decisions (e.g., regarding the economy) as reasons for the military’s demotion in Russia’s state structures to a secondary position. Yet this is not entirely the case. While the Cold War was over, some tensions defined by the conflict re-emerged in the new Post-Cold War world – namely, Russia’s relations with NATO. This paper demonstrates that NATO’s expanding influence on countries of the former Soviet Union led to a stream of discourses in Russia’s media that raised questions relating to Russia’s security. It examines a number of discourses in Russian newspapers in the 1990s through the use of Critical Discourse Analysis, finding that many media outlets in post-Soviet Russia produced inflammatory discourses that justified the build-up and use of Russia’s military as a viable response.
