From mercenary to legitimate actor? Russian discourses on private military companies
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
The Russian private military company (PMC), the Wagner Group, went from being a public secret to openly fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s war in Ukraine. By looking at Russian pro-government media discourses on PMCs, this paper argues that this development is largely made possible by a discursive shift, which happened before the war. Two basic discourses are found in the period leading up to the war–a discourse that denies the existence of Russian PMCs, and a discourse of normalization, which constructs PMCs as legitimate businesses and Russia as a great power. The two discourses previously kept the PMCs in a grey zone, allowing the Russian political elite deniability, while also taking credit for the foreign policy successes the PMCs achieved. However, this paper shows a discursive shift of recognizing PMCs as legitimate actors, which allowed for the Wagner Group to play a key role in Russia’s war.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Journal | Post-Soviet Affairs |
Volume | 39 |
Issue number | 6 |
Pages (from-to) | 420-439 |
ISSN | 1060-586X |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
- mercenaries, official discourse, Russia, Russian private military companies
Research areas
ID: 369988454