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From mercenary to legitimate actor? Russian discourses on private military companies.
- Source :
- Post-Soviet Affairs; Nov2023, Vol. 39 Issue 6, p420-439, 20p
- Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1060586X
- Volume :
- 39
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Post-Soviet Affairs
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 173436959
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586X.2023.2247782