Linguistic Aspects of Diplomatic Language in Vladimir Putin’s Speeches: An Analysis of Discursive and Rhetorical Strategies

Abstract

This article examines Vladimir Putin's diplomatic discourse, from the rhetorical shift initiated in Munich in 2007 to the addresses justifying the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as a privileged object for political linguistics. This discourse follows a coherent rhetorical architecture, mobilized as an instrument of power and legitimation. The article therefore aims to identify the linguistic mechanisms through which this discourse constructs an alternative reality and legitimizes the use of force, and to assess its distinctiveness through comparison with other world leaders. Methodologically, the study draws on a pluridisciplinary framework combining discourse analysis (Fairclough, van Dijk), speech act theory (Austin, Searle), conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson), and the pragmatics of irony (Grice, Sperber and Wilson), applied to a corpus of official speeches from 2007 and 2022, set against addresses by Obama, Macron, Xi Jinping, and Zelensky. The results highlight the systematic recourse to euphemism (Russian "newspeak"), the strategic use of irony and sarcasm as diplomatic weapons, the deployment of structuring conceptual metaphors, and the reactivation of "Sovietisms"; the comparative analysis further reveals a discursive asymmetry combining grammatical impersonality, biting irony, and systemic justification. This structurally distinguishes Russian discourse from that of other major powers. These findings illustrate the performativity of a discourse that seeks less to convince through factual truth than to sow doubt, assert authority, and impose a new reality — making language, within the Putinian paradigm, a field of argumentative battle.