Old Enemy, The: Russia, the Media and the Makings of a New Cold War

- Blurb -

Russia's annexation of the Crimea in 2014 provoked negative international reaction, led in part by western media reporting that varied between outrage and hysteria. Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was described variously as a `pugnacious' but `frustrated' leader with a `nostalgia for Soviet times'. He was a `classic Bond villain' and a new `Rasputin', prone to `zero-sum thinking', `flights of apparent fancy', `bombast', `bile' and `paranoia'. The annexation was described as `land grab' and a `Russian Anschluss'. In its tone and volume, the coverage evoked the images and propaganda of the Cold War of the 1970s and 1980s. This book examines whether it was merely incidental, a reaction to a particular crisis, or if it signalled the beginnings of a new, Cold War framework of reporting, one that might develop to replace the war on terrorism framework that has predominated since the attacks on America on 9/11. Using case study analyses of western media responses to Russia's role in the Crimean Crisis and the Syrian War, as well as the evolving image of Russia as a major threat to western security and democracy (for example, its alleged interference in American and European elections), it asks if and how such a cold war framework might reshape public perceptions of a major, competing power reasserting itself on the world stage.