Defending Russia, Securitising the Future: How the Past Shaped Russia’s Political Discourse Regarding Crimea

Abstract

This paper shows how Russia framed the annexation of Crimea from the securitisation theory perspective, with a focus on the shared past as the key argument. This paper discusses how the idea of shared past in general and the concept of brotherhood among nations in particular were utilised to justify the annexation, along with how the Crimean discourse was framed for the domestic Russian consumption. This includes an analysis of why a shared past is so important to the Kremlin, how this was applied in its foreign policy approach and later justified the annexation and the various methods the Kremlin used to win over public support.