Televising Russia's Strategic Narrative: "Traditional Values" in RT's Broadcasting (2014-2024)

This thesis explores Russian strategic narrative-building within the English-language broadcasts of RT in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014-2024). Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, scholars have focused on Russian hybrid warfare, disinformation campaigns, and soft power politics. Strategic narrative-building can be seen as a form of soft power, aimed at garnering foreign public support for Russian geopolitical efforts. While the problematic nature of these narratives is clear to Western policymakers, strategic narratives are often difficult to identify. This thesis explores the formation of strategic narratives within the English-language Russian state media outlet, RT. To this end, the thesis conducts a narrative analysis of RT broadcast transcripts, carefully selected from a GDELT Project database of over 100,000 transcripts. It examines how Russia has used RT to construct a strategic narrative of being the protector of "traditional values" and how these narratives align with broader Russian geopolitical goals. The analysis argues that strategic narrative-building within RT broadcasts emerged in the months leading up to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has remained evident since. Before this period, the narrative of Russia as the protector of "traditional values" has come forward, particularly during elections in Western countries. The established narrative largely focused on "othering" the West, portraying Russia as the protector of traditional values by critiquing liberal values and policies, such as those related to "woke" culture and LGBTQ+ rights, which were framed as evidence of the "decay" of Western values. This narrative has been identified to align with Western populist narrative. Influential thinkers and journalists were used within RT broadcasts to garner support from the Western conservative community. These elements are directly linked to the war in Ukraine and Russia's aspirations for a multipolar world order. Strategic geopolitical moments, such as foreign elections and key events in the war with Ukraine, were utilized to reinforce this narrative within RT broadcasts, highlighting the geopolitical connection between this strategic narrative and Russia's broader geopolitical objectives.