Justifying war: Russian federal subjects as an intermediary, 2022–2024

Abstract

How do the heads of Russian federal subjects justify the invasion of Ukraine and its consequences to their constituents? This thesis studies how the regional governments of the Russian Federation justify the consequences of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine to their constituents in the period of February 2022 to February 2024. In the advent of the decision of the Russian federal government to commit to a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 2022, and the then subsequent partial mobilization on September 21 2022, the regional governments have found themselves in increasingly difficult circumstances when balancing the demands of the federal center with those of the general populace. In a system of authoritarian federalism where almost all of the governors owe their positions to President Vladimir Putin, yet are also obliged to sufficiently meet the needs of their constituents lest they be removed or lose in the next election, Russia’s governors must placate the demands of the federal government for material assistance, soldiers, and political support while continuing to provide essential services to a majority of the general population who are either disinterested in contributing to the war effort, or are opposed to the war. To understand how Russia’s governors navigate these opposing interests, I conducted a post-structuralist discourse analysis of the Telegram channels of the governors of five Russian regions spanning the first two years of the full-scale invasion, as well as the three key speeches of Vladimir Putin announcing the full-scale invasion and the partial mobilization. My analysis found that while the governors stay within the bounds of Putin’s discourse, they selectively employ and omit key legitimization strategies used by Putin, such as historical rationalizations and hostile portrayals of Ukraine and the collective West. The results suggest that further research is needed to determine the extent of these irregularities and theorize causal explanations for them.