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From mercenary to legitimate actor? Russian discourses on private military companies

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  • Karen Philippa Larsen

Abstract

The Russian private military company (PMC), the Wagner Group, went from being a public secret to openly fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s war in Ukraine. By looking at Russian pro-government media discourses on PMCs, this paper argues that this development is largely made possible by a discursive shift, which happened before the war. Two basic discourses are found in the period leading up to the war – a discourse that denies the existence of Russian PMCs, and a discourse of normalization, which constructs PMCs as legitimate businesses and Russia as a great power. The two discourses previously kept the PMCs in a grey zone, allowing the Russian political elite deniability, while also taking credit for the foreign policy successes the PMCs achieved. However, this paper shows a discursive shift of recognizing PMCs as legitimate actors, which allowed for the Wagner Group to play a key role in Russia’s war.

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  • Karen Philippa Larsen, 2023. "From mercenary to legitimate actor? Russian discourses on private military companies," Post-Soviet Affairs, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(6), pages 420-439, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rpsaxx:v:39:y:2023:i:6:p:420-439
    DOI: 10.1080/1060586X.2023.2247782
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