Living history: Russia's press and online media images of Poland in the 2000s. Implications for Russia's identity as a foreign policy actor

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the national identities of the Eastern and Central European states are finding themselves in a process of transformation and the results are having an impact on international relations in the region. National and foreign political identities of states are constituted by means of everyday discursive practices, not least in the media. In the present study, through an analysis of Russian press and Internet text materials emanating from 2003 to 2008, Russia's foreign political identity in relation to Poland, or the ‘Polish Issue’, will be examined. Based on three different discourses, namely a ‘westerniser’, a ‘statist’ and a ‘civilisationist’ discourse, the research question is posed: How is Russia's identity as a foreign political actor constructed in the text materials with regard to these three discourses? The article suggests that discursive developments during the period paved the way for a return of cold war discourses that today characterise relations between Russia and Poland.