ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates national leaders’ discourses on Russia during the political and military crisis in Ukraine from 2014 until 2018. It shows that perceptions of a threatening Russian Other became prominent in German, Finnish and especially Polish narratives. This paved the way for the joint, EU-level condemnation of Russian policies in Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions. Debates became focused on legal and security issues, whereas narratives about economic cooperation receded from the foreground. In the period between Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and the signature of the Minsk-2 agreement, the national narratives under investigation converged towards the unanimous denunciation of Russia’s use of force and violations of international law. However, differences began to arise between the German and the Finnish narratives, on the one hand, and the Polish one, on the other, during the course of 2015. In the following years, these discursive differences reflected divergent ways of approaching Russia in certain important fields, such as energy security and other sectoral cooperation. Broadly speaking, German and Finnish leaders attempted to maintain a good working relationship with Moscow in a number of areas, whereas their Polish counterparts essentialised Russia as a security threat and left little room for cooperation or dialogue. The chapter contends that these divergences highlight the enduring relevance of conflicting national identities and constructions of Russia within the EU.
