The role of official rhetoric between the Russian Federation and the USA in the process of forming the image of Russia (2009-2019)

The image of Russia as an image of any country is undergoing constant changes. In the early 1990s Russia is focused on the democratic world. In the future, the image undergoes serious changes in the 2000s, after the speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Munich Security Conference, in which the Russian President outlined the national interests of Russia. In the 2010s, the situation changed dramatically, as Russia supported the consolidation of Russia and the Crimea following to a referendum, thus protecting not only national interests, but also the interests of the Russian-speaking world. The formation of the image is influenced by a number of factors, such as object, subject, temporal, spatial and communication ones. The object factor is represented by political culture and event series. The subjective factor is represented by the values, culture, stories of citizens living in a particular state, in this study the citizens of Russia. The temporal factor is implemented in the historical dynamics of relations between the countries, here Russia and the United States. Communication factor is based on reports, publications of key communication channels in the analyzed states. The study used the content analysis in the period of 2009-2019; 4 828 official publications were analyzed. The presented temporary area of analysis includes the period of Barack Obama’s Presidency (2009-2017) and the beginning of Donald Trump’s Presidency (from 2017 to the present day) in the United States, the D.A. Medvedev’s Presidency (2008-2012) and the V.V. Putin’s Presidency (from 2012 to the present day) in Russia.