"Unipolarity" and "polycentricity" of the world: narratives of public manipulations by Russian President D. Medvedev (2008–2012)

Abstract

The article highlights the chronology of the use and dynamics of the semantic load of the narrative "unipolarity" and "polycentricity" in the rhetoric and speeches of D. Medvedev during his tenure as President of the Russian Federation (2008–2012). The combination of the definitions of "unipolarity" and "polycentricity" of the world in the ideology of the new architecture of global security, which was used by V. Putin and D. Medvedev to promote the geostrategic goals of the Russian Federation and the beginning of its confrontation with the so-called collective West, is highlighted. The meanings and goals of D. Medvedev's foreign policy rhetoric regarding the architecture of world security in the context of the geopolitical tactics of the Russian Federation regarding the implementation of its strategy of changing the levers of influence in the world and expansion in the international arena are traced and established.

The author has identified and established D. Medvedev's attempts to purposefully discredit the place and role of the democratic world in the security system of the planet in the context of the reproduction of the USSR neo-empire in the post-Soviet space and attempts to establish a new configuration of the world order. It is noted that at that time the main goal of promoting the narrative of "polycentricity" was the internal Russian audience in order to justify the aggression against Georgia and the confrontation of the Russian Federation with NATO. It is summarized that D. Medvedev's rhetoric and policy were a logical continuation of the new Cold War of the West (EU and NATO) declared by V. Putin at the Munich Security Conference in 2007 and initiated a new stage of global reality in the Russian Federation's far-sighted strategy of changing the levers of geopolitical influence in the Eurasian space and destroying the established system of world security. Deliberate manipulative and disinformational means have been proven in the speeches of the President of the Russian Federation in an attempt to discredit NATO member states, in particular the USA, in his strategy of forming an anti-Western front with the aim of transforming the existing system of influences and balances on the world stage.